Exit tough for eight Newbury Park seniors
TOHS ends Panthers’ season
By Stephen Dorman sdorman@theacorn.com

TO THE HOOP—Newbury Park’s Jordan LaSecla, right, tries to thwart a shot attempt by T.O.’s Alex Cohen last Friday night at NPHSPATRICK S

Not every illustrious career has a proper sendoff.

After years of competing at a high level for the Newbury Park boys’ basketball team, seniors Jordan Cameron and Royce Mason sat at the end of the Panther bench last Friday night and watched their high school hoops careers come to an end.

“It was hard,” Cameron said following Newbury Park’s 58-48 season-ending loss to Thousand Oaks. “You want to contribute, but you can’t do anything from the bench. It’s frustrating because you know you can contribute, but there’s nothing you can do when you foul out.”

Cameron picked up his fifth and final foul with 5:16 remaining in the fourth quarter. Mason joined his teammate on the bench two minutes and 13 seconds later when he fouled out.

“You see your season slipping away,” Mason said, “but you’ve got to stay aggressive and believe in the rest of your team that they’ll get it done.”

In front of a rambunctious, jam-packed gym at NPHS, the Panthers carried a 23-22 lead into halftime, thanks in part to an offtarget Thousand Oaks squad that converted just six-of-14 foul shots in the first half.

Needing a victory to become eligible for a postseason wildcard berth, Newbury Park (11-14, 6-8) exchanged baskets with Thousand Oaks (23-4, 12-2) throughout the third quarter.

Then, just when it looked like the two rivals would enter the fourth quarter tied at 34, Thousand Oaks’ senior Andrew Coomes nailed a running threepointer as the clock expired, giving the Lancers a 37-34 lead after three quarters of play.

Coomes’ buzzer beater, coupled with a rim-rattling dunk from senior forward Matt Luft early in the fourth quarter, gave TOHS all the momentum it needed to pull away from the Panthers down the stretch.

The win, along with Calabasas’ loss to Agoura that evening, gave Thousand Oaks a share of the Marmonte League championship.

“We knew it was going to be a big game because they needed this win to get into the playoffs,” TOHS senior forward Sean Taxter said. “They were going to throw everything they had at us. They played us tight for three quarters, but in the fourth quarter we just ran away.”

Newbury Park senior forward Danny De La Rosa said the home crowd provided an electric atmosphere, making the game a special occasion despite the loss.

“It was one of the craziest crowds I’ve seen here,” De La Rosa said. “We were down, but they stuck with us. That helped us a lot.”

Cameron finished with a teamhigh 17 points in defeat.

The BYU-bound guard led Newbury Park in scoring (21.1 ppg), rebounds (7.3 rpg) and steals (3.0 spg) this year.

Mason led the Panthers with 27 blocks during the season. He summed up the Panthers’ 2005-06 campaign as a year chalked full of near misses and close defeats.

“It’s been a good year, a fun year,” Mason said. “It didn’t end the way I’d have liked it to, but we played hard and got a lot of good stuff done.

“We were there in almost every game,” Mason said. “We battled. I’m proud of the way it ended with us fighting for it every game.”

In addition to Cameron, Mason and De La Rosa, Newbury Park will graduate seniors Mark Zhu, Jordan LaSecla, Eric Randall, Brad Van Uden and Josh Smith.