Eyes on the prize: Robertson claims 3A boys crown despite midseason coaching change

To say it’s been an odd year for the Robertson boys basketball team would be an understatement.

The Cardinals had to watch as their head coach James Branch was escorted out of the gym just before a game in January and several weeks later he was arrested on several charges, including criminal sexual contact of a minor.

But through the turbulence, all second-seeded Robertson did was keep on winning.

The Cardinals (28-4) won their last 10 games, including three times over Class 3-2A rival and top seed St. Michael’s. The latest win came Saturday, 58-46, in the Pit as Robertson claimed the state championship for the second time in four years. This was its fourth consecutive trip to the championship game.

But this time the Cardinals did it under interim coach Adam Bustos.

“It’s a little surreal right now,” Bustos said. “I tell them it’s like going on a roller coaster ride and that feeling you get right before the top. The angst. Playing it back in your head. And then you think, ‘What am I doing here? What am I going through here?’ And then you finally get going down that roller coaster and then you’re like, ‘Okay now we know what we’re doing here.’ That kind of exemplifies us.”

The team won its first two games after the coaching change, but then lost two in a row.

“In the beginning it was rough,” point guard Jesse James Gonzales said of that time. “It was a whole different kind of vibe, I guess. But, like coach said, this group, we’re tight. We’re a close team. It goes beyond basketball for every single one of us.”

Gonzales, the team leader who finished with 24 points and six assists, said he decided he had to do something.

“I had a meeting with them” he said. “And we just said we have to stay together. We’re not going to fall apart. We’re too good to all apart. We knew what we could do and accomplish and we did. We just stayed together. We just stayed balling.”

His twin, Nathaniel Gonzales, who had four blocks and nine rebounds, said that was the season’s turning point.

“I think it happened when we went on that two-game losing streak and we saw the same two teams the following week and beat them,” he said. “I think that flipped the switch for us. It gave us that little confidence boost that we needed and got us back on our feet. And that was it.”

Robertson, which also got 13 points and four assists from George Smith, jumped out quickly against St. Michael’s, hitting four first-quarter 3-pointers to take a 12-2 lead and the Horsemen (24-7) were chasing points the rest of the game.

“They’re great players,” St. Mike’s coach Dakota Montoya said of the Cardinals. “They’re hard to speed up. They’re hard to get to play at our pace. I think we like to play a little faster than they like to play. They didn’t fall into getting into that pace with us. When you have to try and force it on them, they were too skilled for us.”

The Horsemen did get within five points twice in the third quarter, but every time Robertson had an answer.

And that brought a smile to the face of Jesse James Gonzales.

“There is no other team I’d rather beat,” he said. “We saw them in the bracket and they were on the top and we were on the bottom and we knew who we wanted in the final matchup. And we got them and we came out on top.”

Robertson wins boys Class 3A state title against St. Michael's: Photos