Thousand Oaks boys’ basketball team gears up for the postseason
Playoffs start Friday night at home
By Stephen Dorman sdorman@theacorn.com

PATRICK SHELBY/Acorn Newspapers RETURN TO SENDER—Thousand Oaks senior forward Matt Luft, left, rejects a shot attempt by Newbury Park’s Brad Van Uden during last Friday’s regular-season finale at NPHS. The Lancers won the game, 58-48, to gain a share of the Marmonte League title along with Calabasas. The loss knocked Newbury Park out of the postseason.

The Thousand Oaks boys’ basketball team will enter tomorrow night’s CIF-SS Division IA playoff opener against Sultana High with momentum on its side.

Winners of six of their last seven games, the Marmonte League co-champion Lancers (23-4, 12-2) were brimming with postseason enthusiasm following last Friday’s 58-48 victory over rival Newbury Park on the road.

The win against Newbury Park in front of a playoff-like atmosphere, coupled with a Calabasas loss to Agoura, gave the Lancers a share of the league title and knocked Newbury Park out of contention for a postseason berth.

“We’re ready for the playoffs, in fact they enjoy this,” TOHS head coach Richard Endres said, following his team’s win over Newbury Park.

Endres’ team played in front of a pair of raucous crowds during the final week of the regular season—at home against Calabasas Feb. 3 and a week later vs. Newbury Park—and that experience should help the Lancers as they prepare for the rigors of the postseason, the coach said.

“The full-house, standingroom-only crowds really get you ready for the playoffs,” Endres said.

Senior forward Matt Luft said the team’s current three-game winning streak gives the Lancers confidence entering the postseason.

“We’re playing well now and we’re planning on going all the way,” Luft said.

Thousand Oaks has received major contributions from several players this season, including Luft, Trevor Mustin, Andrew Coomes, Dylan Betancourt, Sean Taxter and Jake Poppen, to name a few. They’ve also received significant fan support from a crazed group of students that call themselves “The Green Hole.”

“They’re better than ever,” senior center Wade Kegley said of The Green Hole. “They’ve gone everywhere with us. They’ve gone to all of the away games supporting us, even down to San Diego. It’s amazing.”

Thousand Oaks, which earned the Division IA No. 4 seed, will host the Sultana High Sultans Friday night at 7:30 p.m.

Sultana (14-10, 4-4) finished in third place in the five-school Mojave River League. The Sultans are led by 6-foot-6 senior forward/guard Eric Andersen, the team’s leader with an average of 13.6 points and 12.2 rebounds per game during the regular season.

The winner of Friday’s game will face either JW North or Rancho Cucamonga Tuesday night in the second round.

Thousand Oaks plans on playing beyond the weekend.

“We go into every game confident we’re going to win,” Kegley said. “We don’t go into any game thinking we’re going to lose. We know what’s going to happen in the end.”