Last week was a busy one for Army-Navy Academy boys basketball coach Terry Ryan.
On Friday, Feb. 27, at Mira Mesa High School, the Warriors defeated Ramona 53-37 to capture the CIF San Diego Section Division III championship — the program’s first since 2013 after finishing 3-21 just three seasons ago.
Less than 24 hours later came a light celebratory practice and film session. By Tuesday afternoon, Ryan was attending his daughter’s wedding before driving to Chatsworth for the Warriors’ opening-round victory in the Division IV Southern California regional playoffs.
“Monday, we immediately started focusing on winning on Tuesday,” Ryan told The Coast News. “We watched film on the other team and watched film of our game, pointing out areas we needed to improve — breaking the press, because we knew Chatsworth was going to press us, and taking care of the ball. Then we just got mentally ready, visualizing the win and how we were going to defend them.”
In the section championship, Army-Navy’s defense held Ramona to just 13 of 51 from the field. A strength all season, the Warriors also limited the Bulldogs to 6 of 27 from three-point range. Army-Navy jumped out to a 23-6 lead before Ramona narrowed the gap to 27-20.
The Warriors opened the second half with a 16-7 run and never looked back.
“We get more 35-second shot-clock violations than anybody,” Ryan said. “It happens more than once a game because our defense is so good. One of the unique things about our team is that we play strong defense for the full 35 seconds. Even teams that normally play good defense start to break down after about 20 seconds.”
“We watched a lot of their footage and knew they had strong offensive plays and a record that reflected it,” added junior point guard Skyler Dawson. “While we pride ourselves on having the best defense in San Diego, we knew we had to step it up defensively to stop them and win the game.”
Coastal Pacific League champions, Army-Navy (24-10), entered the section championship game riding a six-game winning streak.
“We scheduled a really tough schedule for ourselves, playing eight Division I teams in the area to get ready for the season,” Ryan said. “We went three-and-five against Division I teams, which was better than I expected. Late in the season, we played Torrey Pines and lost a three-point game with a minute to go. At that moment, we knew if we could play that close with them, we could beat anybody.”
Six-foot-seven junior standout Ivan Marchenko, a native of Ukraine, poured in a game-high 21 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Sophomore Ernest Donkoh, a six-foot-eight perimeter threat, contributed 13 points and nine rebounds.
“Ivan’s really tough and really strong, and finishes well around the basket,” Ryan said. “They had two tall players and seemed to think that would be enough to stop him. We talked about it before and after the game and said this was going to be an Ivan-type game. In the second half, we ran motion offense and let Ivan go inside. When he got the ball, we were confident he was going to score — and he did. They didn’t double-team, so we knew he could score one-on-one.”
Army-Navy opened the Southern California regional with a 57-48 win over Chatsworth before ending the season with a second-round loss to Granada Hills Charter, 57-43, on March 5.
“It has been a great season, and we are really proud of what we have accomplished,” Dawson said. “We went into the season with the main goal to win CIF.”
