The Live Oak basketball team’s best season in six years came with two players named to the All-West Valley Division list.
Senior forward Austin Carvalho earned first-team honors, while sophomore guard Luke Laguna received a second-team nod, as voted by league coaches. Both were pivotal in helping the Acorns earn their first playoff berth since 2006.
The speedy 6-foot, 3-inch Carvalho, a second-team all-league at guard in 2010-11, posed matchup problems for league opponents. He scored a team-high 10.2 points a game, fifth highest in the league, on 58-percent shooting from the field and pulled in 4.4 rebounds.
Brett Paolucci’s club received a big lift when Laguna transferred from Christopher this past offseason. The 6-foot guard made his mark from beyond the arc, shooting 51 percent for a league-best 41 3-pointers. He averaged 9.5 points and one assist, second highest on the team behind Jakob Conlan’s 1.5.
The Acorns (12-13 overall) won six of their final eight league contests to tie for third place at 9-5 and lost 51-43 to San Mateo in the first round of the Division III Central Coast Sectional.
Mount Hamilton Division
Senior guard Travis Saenz received all-league acclaim for the second straight year as one of three honorees from Sobrato.
Saenz made the All-Mount Hamilton Division second team with 13 points, 2.2 assists – fifth most in the league – and 1.7 steals a game. He also drew 11 charges, tops for the conference.
Senior center Ben Vater joined frontcourt-mate Karl Johnisee among the league’s honorable mentions. Vater was ranked fifth in scoring (13.1 points), third in rebounds (8.4), and fourth in blocks (1.4) and free throw shooting (67 percent).
Johnisee, a sophomore, averaged 4.5 points and six rebounds.
Coastal Athletic League
The Oakwood Hawks produced four all-league honorees and one special-recognition award winner on the way to making the CCS playoffs for the first time in program history.
Brett Hall and Justin Mortensen made first-team All-Coastal Athletic League, with Mortensen earning Freshman of the Year. The second-team recipients were junior forward Harsh Sikka and sophomore point guard John Angulo. Junior Ryan Salamon, who played every position, was an honorable mention.
Hall, who made the second team as a sophomore and was Freshman of the Year in 2009-10, is poised for a big senior season after averaging 16.3 points and 6.7 rebounds this winter. A late-season injury kept him out of the playoffs, as the Hawks fell 62-34 to Kehillah in the first round of the Division V tournament.
To play significant minutes as a freshman is difficult, but Mortensen did it with ease. The 6-foot-7 center averaged a double-double in points and rebounds and led the league in blocks.
Sikka was Oakwood’s second-leading scorer and rebounder, while Angulo made for a great fit at the one spot, where he became the team’s “most consistent and most improved player,” coach Kort Jensen said.
