Mission Prep caps off final regular season game with win over rival SLO
In keeping with a matchup marked by a long history of raucous student sections and a boisterous rivalry atmosphere, Mission Prep took the floor against San Luis Obispo hoping to avenge a January loss.
Behind high-intensity defense and some sharp shooting early on, Mission Prep secured a 69-53 victory to end the regular season and split the season series.
The Royals came out firing on all cylinders, locking down SLO on defense and jumping out to a 20-9 first quarter lead behind sharp 3-point shooting from senior Hunter Drake, who led all scorers with 22 points.
Mission Prep (14-13, 4-4 Mountain) maintained a lead throughout the game, though the Tigers (13-15, 4-4 Mountain) closed the gap to 34-28 at the half.
Each time SLO threatened to close the margin and catch up, Mission Prep responded, opening the gap to a 51-43 lead after the third quarter.
With Royals and Tigers fans chanting taunts across the gym on SLO’s Senior Night, ribbing each other and trying to distract opponents in the process, Mission Prep executed well as a team and thrilled their faithful with two impressive throw-downs.
Senior David “Deuce” Kellogg turned the corner on a drive in the second half and rose up to slam dunk the ball, pumping his fist in an expression of his excitement as the Royals built upon their second half lead. Kellogg tallied 14 points in the contest.
Then, to put an exclamation point on the game, 6-foot-7 sophomore forward Kason Nico broke free for a fast break two-handed jam in the fourth quarter.
“We know we're a better team than when we played them last time,” Drake said. “We only scored 40 points (in the 48-40 loss at Mission Prep on Jan. 23). And I think we just did a great job of coming out hot right out the gate. I think the team played well, and we kept that fire.”
SLO was led by Vaughn Otto, who scored a team-high 19 points; Greyson Gardner added 13 points; Hayden Brandow tallied 11 points.
With the victory, Mission Prep, SLO and Atascadero each finished 4-4 in Mountain League, tying for second place behind 8-0 Saint Joseph, of Santa Maria.
“We really started talking about getting better every day,” said Terrance Harris, Mission Prep’s head coach of the past 20 years. “We teach ‘Let’s not think about outcomes. Let’s think about whether we’re improving on a daily basis.’”
Harris said he liked his team’s execution and poise in a tough road win with a fired-up crowd.
“This is a fun high school crosstown rivalry with the student sections,” Harris said. “That’s what you want...I just thought our guys adjusted, executed. We still have a lot of work to do, but I think they’ve done a good job of continuing to grow throughout this season.”
Drake acknowledged a slow middle part of the season for the Royals, but believes they’re peaking at the right time.
“We had a slow middle part of the season,” Drake said. “We’ve started to heat up towards the end. And I think we could be dangerous. I feel like we’re getting hot.”
Kellogg said it was satisfying to beat SLO in his last regular season of high school basketball, noting the build-up to the game was intense.
“I was so fired up,” Kellogg said. “They’re posting videos about me, calling me TikTok boy, all kinds of names. It’s our last year. It’s our last time we were playing SLO. And it’s good to end on like this.”
Kellogg, who transferred to SLO as a sophomore after playing his freshman season at St. Joseph, has been a key piece of the team that has gone to two CIF-Central Section finals the past two years, winning last year’s title in a thrilling 63-59 double-overtime win over Central High of Fresno in 2025.
Kellogg said the team is battle tested in playoffs and will be ready when CIF-Central Section playoff brackets are posted this week.
“We just come together as a team when we feel the outside pressure,” Kellogg said. “We’re used to that pressure.”
This story was originally published February 10, 2026 at 11:36 PM.
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