Underdog Beyer can’t pull off third upset, falls to No. 1 Placer in D-III title
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Beyer, a No.7 seed, reached Sac‑Joaquin final after three upsets.
- Placer won 63‑51, outrebounding Beyer 40‑29 and hitting 10 threes.
- Beyer eyes NorCal bracket next, hoping to win a NorCal game.
The Beyer boys basketball team’s 2024-25 season ended in first-round disappointment. This year, Beyer completely flipped the script.
Last season, after winning their first Western Athletic Conference title under head coach Kyle McKim, Beyer was upset as the No. 7 seed in the No. 7 vs No. 10 game against El Capitan. They saw the Gauchos parlay that first-round win into a Cinderella run that included a section finals berth.
Though El Capitan finished as the runner-up, they nearly upset No. 1 Christian Brothers, falling 59-56.
McKim says the Patriots kept last season’s upset in the past. But one has to think that when presented with another opportunity this year in the same No. 7 vs No. 10 first-round matchup , they wanted to take full advantage of the opportunity.
Ranked seventh in this season’s D-III bracket, Beyer beat No. 10 Oakdale in the first round then went on a Cinderella run of their own, knocking off the division’s No. 2 seed, Casa Roble and beating No. 6 East Union in the semifinals to make it to the big stage: Golden 1 Center on a Saturday afternoon with the championship on the line.
If they wanted their first ever blue banner, they would need one more trick up their sleeve. They were faced with beating the Division’s No. 1 team, a Placer outfit with just three losses on the season — two coming in Foothill Valley League play. The Hillmen boast an impressive record with one of the nation’s best shooters, Emmett Rose, California’s leader in threes made and No. 11 nationally (123), a heady point guard in Kannon Rector and a slew of supporting mates.
The Patriots countered with Curtis Harmon, a 20-point, 10-plus rebound junior; James McGee, who adds upwards of 18 points a game and Keimani Thompson, a force inside.
The players matched up on paper, but the deciding factor in Placer’s 63-51 win, McKim said, was hustle plays.
Beyer’s game plan was to guard against Rose, Rector and other Hillmen shooters along the three-point line, creating a rebounding disadvantage. Placer attacked rebounds with two hands and chased down loose balls with every ounce of hustle they had.
“We were chasing their shooters a lot of times, so it’s tough because our bigs are coming over to help, so we’re weak on the backside rebounds,” McKim explained. “There’s loose balls bouncing around and there’s not as many bodies of ours in the paint to grab them. But our kids played really, really hard.”
The section championship stage is bright. The regulation NBA court at Golden 1 Center is longer and when you’re playing for the title, your opponent is likely the best you’ve seen all season.
The Patriots are one of two Modesto City Schools programs to make it to a Sac-Joaquin Section final, sharing the honor with the 2006 Modesto High outfit. The Patriots are the only MCS school, however, to make multiple championship appearances. Though the third time was not the charm, McKim can appreciate the history.
“For them to come together in the playoffs at the right time has been so cool to watch,” he said.
As a No. 7 seed, Beyer is the lowest seed out of all participants in each of the 12 finals , boys and girls. They are a team with just three seniors that pulled off a pair of playoff upsets and rode the emotional high until they reached a section final.
“We’re not here for participation trophies, but it’s an amazing experience for these guys,” McKim said. “The steps that they’ve taken are incredible. To go from where we were at Holiday Hoops and how disconnected we were to playing for a section title game, in a million years, I didn’t see this coming at all.”
Beyer felt the big-stage atmosphere the first few minutes of the game, falling into a 20-9 hole in the first half. But then the Patriots got hot. Reggie Jacob, Rodney Oliney and James McGee hit consecutive threes to cut into the Hillmen lead. A few minutes later, another McGee three tied it at 31-31 with 29 seconds in the half. Over the last 5 minutes, 18 seconds, Beyer outscored Placer 22-13 and went on a 10-0 run. A Kannon Rector buzzer-beating layup gave Placer a two-point halftime lead, but the Patriots were back in the game.
“It’s easy for a game to get out of hand and for them to respond like that, shows that they’ve got that in them,” McKim said of his team.
The closest the Patriots could get in the second half was eight. When Beyer threatened, Placer answered. Beyer made sure Placer never got too comfortable with its lead, but the Hillmen kept their advantage at around 10 points for the final two quarters. Placer’s shooters made 10 threes and the Hillmen out-rebounded the Patriots 40-to-29.
“To beat a team like (Placer), we’ve got to elevate ourselves to another level,” McKim said. “We played well, but a B-level game is not going to beat Placer. We needed to play an A-plus level on the effort and playing together part of it. We just didn’t take that next step to elevate ourselves tonight.”
They now await their CIF Northern California regional playoff fate. They will learn their seed, division and opponent Sunday afternoon when the state’s high school athletics governing body releases the brackets. They play their first game Tuesday.
“For us, it’s about taking steps as a program and trying to do cool things, trying to get more games as a group,” McKim said. “To win a NorCal game would be another notch onto a season of cool things that’s happened. If we can make a run in NorCal’s that would be cool as heck, but we’re gonna take it one game at a time. We’ll see who we play tomorrow.”
