Sports

Boys Hoops: Giants Have Score To Settle

Redwood hosts San Rafael on Tuesday in MCAL playoffs.

Boys basketball coach Steve Compagno can rattle off Redwood High School's recent playoff resume with a degree of pride.

He isn't letting the Giants rest on their laurels, though. He know pride can come all too easily before a big fall, especially considering Redwood's next opponent.

The Giants (9-5) open the Marin County Athletic League playoffs Tuesday against San Rafael (8-6). Tipoff is 7:30 p.m. at Redwood. If the Giants win, they'll continue to have homecourt advantage as the rest of the MCAL playoff games will be held on the Larkspur campus.

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"We'll have to beat whoever comes along," Compagno said. "There are no freebies here on out."

The Bulldogs edged the Giants 58-56 on a Parker Shaw 3-pointer at the buzzer the last time the two teams met.

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"San Rafael was a heartbreaker," Compagno said.

The Giants haven't had an easy season so far, but they've gotten stronger through adversity, it seems.

"The turning point this season? When we lost to Drake, we lost that big lead and they came on strong at the end," said Redwood senior guard Maurice Coleman."Losing at the buzzer like that, we felt real bad. But we knew we had to turn things around and we did."

The Giants won four games in a row after that loss on Jan. 8. Their record since then was good enough to give them the No. 4 seed in the MCAL playoffs.

Compagno is hoping Redwood's past playoff experience will give the Giants an edge in this postseason. The Giants grabbed the MCAL title last season on their way to their first North Coast Section Division II championship.

"I'm feeling confident," he said. "There are enough guys playing on the team who were on the team last year. They understand how to handle the pressure."

Coleman, an exciting talent, is one of the team's energizers, along with leading scorer Matt Mareno and powerful Kai Drewry.

The Giants have also seen the development of juniors Jake Packman, Dylan Wilson and Sandro DiGrazio into solid contributors. Compagno says the team has molded itself into an effective force this season.

"You win an NCS championship and there's a lot of pressure, but you go on," Compagno said. "It's not easy to do, but I'm proud of what we've done so far … and it's not over."


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