By Hugo Traverso (CN 2026)

 

Two and a half minutes into the first quarter, the Windsor students started chanting, "This games over." The Jaguars were up 4-1 and playing incredible defense. Most would say it was way, way too early to be chanting that, but the Jaguars kept their lead for the entire game, up until the 4th Quarter with 2.3 seconds left.

Newman was down 36-29 with two and a half minutes left and the offense ignited. Diego Flores Gonzalez hit 1 of 2 free throws to cut the lead to 6 and then Newman forced a turnover on the other end.  AJ Cole got fouled and drained both free throws to cut it to 4. Windsor missed a three on the other end, AJ Cole ran the length of the court, but missed a layup. Madhi Camara, though, was there and scored on a great put back to cut the lead to 2.

Next, Colin Kraft got fouled on the other end and nailed both of his free throws to expand the Jaguar lead to 4. Diego Flores Gonzalez missed a layup on the other end, but Mahdii Camara was there with the rebound, and kicked it out to Flores Gonzalez who nailed a corner three to cut the lead to 1.

Josh Geist drove on Mahdi Camara, but Camara was set and Geist was called for a charge. This foul put Newman one foul out of double bonus and after Legend Haile missed a three, AJ Cole went for the rebound, got it and was fouled by Liam West who ran into him grappling for the loose ball.

With 2.3 seconds left, Cole was headed to the line to possibly tie it and/or win it for Newman. His first shot, swish, TIMEOUT Windsor. His second shot, SWISH. Windsor's desperation shot from ¾ court hit the rafters.

Windsor had dominated the game early, leading 14-4 after the 1st Quarter, but Newman had slowly climbed back, cutting the lead to 7 at half and 5 before the 4th.

Local legend and FoodNetwork star Guy Fieri, whose son, Ryder, is a senior playing for Windsor, rallied the Windsor student section before the 4th Quarter began. This triggered a short 5 point run that put
Windsor up by 10. Newman came back and won the game, but stats show it shouldn't have been this way. Windsor had 18 total turnovers, no offensive rebounds and 14 fouls while Newman only had 5 turnovers, 16 offensive rebounds and 17 fouls. Newman shot near 20% from the field, though and Windsor played really good defense, locking down Tatum Kurpinsky who has been a huge contributor for Newman's offense. Joseph Campbell face-guarded him the entire game, only allowing him to get 1 point from a free throw. 

Windsor played well minus the turnovers and racked up 25 rebounds with Colin Kraft and Joseph Campbell being a huge part of that effort. Kraft had 9 to go along with 10 points and Campbell had 7 to go along with 8 points.

A huge part of Newman prevailing was the second and third chances they got. 16 of their 31 rebounds came offensively with Mahdi Camara once again bringing in loads of boards. Camara only had 2 defensive boards, but allowed Newman to climb back into the game, doing what he does best, getting offensive rebounds. He had 7 of them.

Newman got into foul trouble early with Madhi Camara picking up his 3rd and 4th fouls in the third and Diego picking up his 4th foul early in the 4th.

Matt Zichichi picked up 3 early, and Kai Shadan also picked up 3 while guarding Joseph Campbell. Campbell is usually the standout star of the Jaguars, but Shadan stepped up to the challenge when other players got into foul trouble. As a result, Campbell was held to only 3 field goals and no threes. 

As a result of the foul trouble, Newman went deep into their bench, utilizing one freshman who had started early in the year with Mahdi and Tatum out, Carmine Guevara. Guevara made an instant impact on the rebounding game, showing incredible effort and pulling down 6 boards, 3 of them being offensive. AJ Cole added 5 boards and 9 points, and stayed calm under pressure, shooting perfectly from the free throw line. The freshmen have been great for Newman this year and have very promising futures in the John Fitzgerald Gymnasium. 

Diego Flores Gonzalez has been incredible for Newman this season and added another great game to his resume with 15 points and 4 rebounds. "We knew from the jump it was going to be hard because [It's the] last game of the season. We came out short. We were down like 12, 13.We knew in the second half we had to pick it up, so the intensity was there, second half, we just had to comeback," Flores Gonzalez said in his post game interview with YSN365, when talking about Newman's slow start.

Flores Gonzalez talked about Newman's recovery and comeback after going down early, "I felt like, because of [Windsor's] defense, we were trying to force it too much the first half so the second half, coach told us, 'Don't force it', 'Move the ball', 'Get better shots', 'Pass up a good shot for a better shot." Gonzalez Flores talked about all those good plays he made down the stretch including that clutch 3, "[I'm] just feeding off my teammates. They trust me with the ball, so I just knew I had to make a play."

Diego had an incredible game and Newman will now move on to play Maria Carrillo in the  NBL Oak Playoff Tournament and if they win, they will face either Piner or Montgomery in the Championship at Rancho Cotate High School, on Friday. If it is Monty, Newman and Montgomery will face off in a game that will decide the outright winner of the NBL Oak and the 1 seed in the NCS Division 2 playoffs. 

For Windsor, it is likely their season is over, but they had a good one under first year Head Coach Alec Kobre and have a promising future. Kobre is a great coach and is going to make Windsor a contender again.