Hawks turned their season around with team captain’s Milentijevic’s leadership

This story was written by Oakwood students and published online February 29, 2024

Photo by Tere Casey, Oakwood School photographer

By Kishan Patel, Dhruv Rajagopalan, Rohan Rajagopalan, Kenneth Peng, and Aarav Deshpande.

After weathering a storm of obstacles, the Oakwood Hawks Boys Varsity took flight with the school’s first-ever Central Coast Section basketball championship in tow. Now the team’s soaring even higher, spreading their wings with two wins away from the prestigious CIF State Finals.

Photo by Tere Casey, Oakwood School photographer

Oakwood takes on the Colusa RedHawks in round two of the CIF State Playoffs at home Thursday Feb. 29. Game time is 7 p.m. Tickets may be purchased on GoFan.

Early in the season, the Hawks stared down significant challenges, losing their reigning league MVP and point guard, Langston Watson, who suffered a season-ending ACL injury during an early tournament.

The  Hawks led by rookie head coach, Joseph Lampkin, fielded a young team consisting of mostly sophomores, a few juniors, one freshman, and one senior. Other injuries followed the loss of Watson. The Hawks found themselves in an unfamiliar position in the middle of the season, where for the first time in years, the underdogs were out of contention for the league championship, said team captain Marko Milentijevic.

“At the beginning of the season, not many people believed in us. We were struggling with a lot of injuries. It didn’t look very good,” he said. “There were games where we played with only six players. But it made us stronger, and once we all got healthy again we looked much more powerful than at the beginning of the season”

The Hawks turned their season around with Milentijevic’s leadership and the incorporation of junior transfer Anthony Felix, who had to sit out the preseason due to CIF transfer rules and an ankle injury. The Hawks qualified for the CCS Playoffs as the number two seed and cruised past The Nueva School and Thomas More High School to meet the number one Summit Shasta Black Bears in the championship game. These two teams had met earlier in the preseason, with Summit Shasta taking the victory 65-50. Oakwood came into this game with something to prove.

Photo by Tere Casey, Oakwood School photographer

A back-and-forth game ensued,  from start to finish. The Hawks faced a deficit of 33-29 at halftime, with Summit Shasta drilling tough three-point shots and fierce drives to the rim. Oakwood tied the game to end the third after successive shots from Felix, Milentijevic, and Isaac Castaneda. The teams traded baskets throughout the fourth quarter. The Hawks had a one-point lead with 7.1 seconds left in the game. As Summit Shasta rushed down the court in an attempt at a last-second basket, sophomore Vidal Nzoyem rose up to make the game-winning block for the Hawks to capture the CCS title.

After the win, the Oakwood Hawks secured a spot In the CIF State Playoffs with the number three seed, with their first matchup against the number 14-seeded Caruthers Blue Raiders. The Hawks raced out to a 14-3 lead, with a sizzling start from Anthony Felix, and a poster dunk from Vidal Nzoyem that brought the crowd to its feet. The Blue Raiders bounced back, taking the lead in the second quarter 21-20, making Oakwood burn a timeout. Isaac Castaneda did what he does best with his smooth finishes, scoring the last eight points for the Hawks to finish the half with a 29-26 lead.

Oakwood dominated the third quarter, with their full-court press, with elite Mateo Juarez, Damion Brown, and Bryce Smith-Keeney harassing the Blue Raiders with a stifling defense.

The Hawks cruised to a 69-53 win, marking their first-ever win in the CIF State Playoffs with huge momentum going forward.

The victory would not have been possible without Milentijevic scoring 16 points. He attributed the win to teamwork.

“I’m proud of every one of my teammates for putting in hard work, not giving up, and believing in me as a leader,” he said. “We did something no team in the history of Oakwood has ever done”.

Milentijevic has been the driving power for the Hawks for the entire season, leading the team in scoring and rebounds. He has multiple college offers to take his basketball career to the next level.

Milentijevic tied in scoring with Anthony Felix, both scoring  16 points. Felix’s contributions go far beyond scoring. He runs the floor as well as anyone on the team, defends at a high level, and plays with the heart of a lion.

Coach Lampkin views him as the “glue guy” and the “X factor” who holds the team together. Felix’s return played a huge role in the resurgence of the Oakwood Hawks. After the game, Lampkin assessed the Hawk’s efforts, including the 15-0 run starting the second half:

“The win was a big team effort. We switched up the defense a little bit, started pressing, and changed a lot of personnel types,” he said. “The boys are meshing well, other teams are having a hard time matching up with three capable big guys who can rebound, put the ball in the ground, and get to the rack.”

Photo by Tere Casey, Oakwood School photographer

Lampkin addressed his mindset as a coach during early season struggles/

“I never had doubts about our team,” he said. “I think it was pretty common around campus, even though the players kind of doubting themselves after losing a lot of games early on. I would always tell them that we’ll be fine in the end, I think that they’re starting to believe that as well, just staying positive.”

Oakwood athletic director and former varsity head coach Kort Jensen explained the progression of the program.

“When excellence becomes a tradition, greatness never stops. Fifteen years ago, I had to beg people to come and play basketball because there weren’t enough players,” he said. “In my first year, we had four players and I had to beg a fifth, we lost every game by about sixty points. By the next year, we ended up going 11-11, making CCS and we never looked back.”

Oakwood has competed in the CCS playoffs every single year since.

Jensen sees a “healthy” future for the team as they face the competition in the finals.

“Whether we win or not, I expect (the players) to be passionate and go out and compete at the highest level and play the game the right way with respect and honor,” he said. “If they do that, then that’s a winning season, regardless of if they hang a banner or not.”

 

Oakwood English Professor Dr. Hammerbeck and Morgan Hill Publisher Marty Cheek edited this story.