Varsity statistics from California Cup #2 can be found here.
This write-up is part one of two write-ups on California Cup #2 and contains only the top eight varsity teams.
Due to the incredible number of upsets and close games in this tournament, attached to the bottom of this article is a visual that will hopefully give you a better idea of how the day went.
1st place – Saratoga A (HSNCT qualification)
Senior Bruce Lou once again leads his team and the tournament with 122.22 PPG (twice as high as second scorer junior Jason Chen of Amador A) and Saratoga A goes 9-0 to take their first varsity win. Their PPB has jumped from 23.19 (Cal Cup #1) to 24.27 and they had the least negs in the field (8, next lowest Homestead B with 11). Their closest game was a 305-295 win over Homestead A, closely followed by a 380-365 win over Dougherty Valley A. They had a close but significant win over Bellarmine A 390-310, which could be due to Bellarmine A’s missing member or Bruce’s rapid improvement. Now that they’ve hit the top, expect them to stay there for the duration of the season, although close games with the next 4 teams (and maybe even occasional upsets) are very likely.
2nd place – Bellarmine A (HSNCT qualification)
Despite missing usual A member senior Abhishek Aditham, Bellarmine A brought two additional players who might have ended up giving the team a boost on this NAQT set, although that wasn’t enough to prevent extremely close losses to Dougherty Valley A (340-360) and Saratoga (310-390). Bellarmine A had twice Saratoga’s negs, but with a PPB od 23.98 and all five of its players in the top 17 ( and led by seniors Jarek Jankowksi and Gavin Pereira at 7th and 8th with 42 and 41.43 PPG, respectively), they stand a good a chance as usual at taking firsts over Saratoga at later tournaments.
3rd place – Davis A (HSNCT and PACE NSC qualification)
Davis A makes a huge leap from 7th place at Cal Cup #1, led by junior Anthony DiCarlo (tournament 5th with 45 PPG) and supported by two teammates in the mid-twenties. Their high finish at this tournament is likely due to their strength at NAQT distribution, which allowed them to clutch a close win over Dougherty Valley A (320-305), while their PPB (20.74) shows that they still have some work to be truly on par with Saratoga A, Bellarmine A, and Dougherty Valley A. In terms of raw gets/negs, they were outscored by Homestead A (due to their 18 negs to Homestead A’s 14), but their PPB was their saving grace, as well as the absence of Homestead’s lead scorer senior Karthik Srivatsan. And while they did beat Homestead A 425-180 in their round this time around, I’d expect closer rounds and some switching off between the two in future tournaments.
4th place – Dougherty Valley A (HSNCT qualification)
Led by tournament 3rd scorer senior Eric Chen (57.22 PPG) to a 5-4 finish, Dougherty Valley A continues to surprise. They pulled off one of the best upsets of the tournament, defeating Bellarmine A (360-340), and all but one of their losses were by under 30 points. Dougherty Valley A also joins Saratoga A as the only varsity teams to have more powers than gets, by nearly the same margin (46/39 to Saratoga A’s 60/50). They also only very narrowly lost to Saratoga A 365-380. Their PPB was a strong 23.18, which was higher than Davis A’s, lending weight to the sentiment that their downfall this tournament was the distribution, in addition to having the highest number of negs (25 to next highest “Escobar” A’s 21). Their loss to Homestead A was also the tournament’s largest upset by score, finishing 130-400, although this could be due to the fact that Dougherty Valley A managed only 5 gets to accompany their 5 negs, indicating that addressing their neg problem should be one of their primary concerns for future tournaments.
5th place – Homestead (formerly “Guilder”) A (HSNCT qualification)
Homestead A plays their first tournament of the year without lead scorer senior Karthik Srivatsan, finishing 5-4. Sophomore William Scott (35.56 PPG) leads an extremely well-balanced team, followed by sophomore Brandon Herren (31.67 PPG), junior Jessica Chen (25 PPG), and senior Alex Lei (23.89 PPG). They struggled with the distribution and the lack of Karthik, only managing a 19.03 PPB, but showed that they will not be as impacted as previously thought when Karthik graduates at the end of the season. Notably, they gave Saratoga A their closest game of the day, losing just 295-305. Nearly all of the team’s negs came from Alex (9 of 14), which says good things for the team overall, and further shows Homestead A’s potential in the next season.
6th place – “Escobar” A (HSNCT qualification)
Senior Kelvin Lu (6th scorer, 42.22 PPG), supported by sophomore Anup Hiremath (9th scorer, 38.33 PPG), leads “Escobar” A to a 4-5 finish, impressively managing to upset Homestead A in an extremely close game (315-310) and losing by just 40 points to Dougherty Valley A (270-310), managing along the way to answer the same number of tossups as Dougherty Valley A (although it was 36/49 to Dougherty Valley A’s 46/39). They were only second in negs this time around 21 to Dougherty Valley A’s 25), but they’ll still need to work on that and their PPB (17.65) before future tournaments.
7th place – Palo Alto (HSNCT qualification)
Palo Alto also finished 4-5, this time led by tournament 4th scorer senior Max Krawczyk (47.78 PPG) and missing Cal Cup #1’s lead scorer junior Trevor Filseth. They had the tournament’s 5th highest PPB (20) and just five less powers than gets (35/40), although they had just a few too many negs (17) than they could afford with their scoring, almost all of them by Max (tournament’s highest negs at 15). As previously predicted, they managed to upset “Escobar” A by a pretty large margin (335-240) and lose by just 15 to Davis A (310-325). Palo Alto still has a way to go to return to last year’s level of competition, but addressing the neg problem should help them get partway there.
8th place – Amador A (HSNCT qualification)
Amador A finishes 3-6, qualifying for HSNCT under junior Jason Chen (tournament 2nd scorer at 61.11 PPG). The team shows potential, but they also had more negs than could be made up for by their scoring (17), especially when it came to PPB (15.86) and how they only had half as many powers as gets (29/58). They did, however, manage to upset Dougherty Valley A 320-290 and lost by narrow margins to both “Escobar” A ((275-290) and Palo Alto (250-255), indicating a chance for shuffling between the three teams as they develop and fix their negging problem.
Thanks from NCQBA to those who played and staffed Cal Cup #2!
Cal Cup #2 Varsity Visual – Each value in a row reflects the margin by which the team in the first column won or lost its game against the team in the corresponding column
