Atascadero cruises to CIF semifinals with 82-41 win. Three SLO County teams fall
With tenacious defense and the offense executing to near perfection, Atascadero cruised through its first playoff matchup against Sanger High of Fresno County.
In Division 2 CIF-Central Section action, the No. 1 Greyhounds (19-9) won 82-41 in a packed gym to open their postseason campaign after a first-round bye.
Meanwhile, San Luis Obispo, Arroyo Grande and Mission Prep each lost on the road, all in the Division 2 bracket, to end their seasons.
Atascadero forced several turnovers with heavy ball pressure against the No. 16 Apaches (16-13), including five first-quarter steals from star senior guard Shea Buckley.
Buckley, who became Atascadero’s all-time leading scorer late in the regular season, recorded 18 points to go along with Greyhounds senior forward Damon Mitchell’s game-high 19.
“I think we executed our game plan perfectly, and all the thanks to our coach (Augie Johnston),” Buckley said. “He put in a lot of hours studying film and all our guys, the bench players too, we came out and did our thing. We’re buying into what our coach lays out for us. And our coach is working endlessly, and we really appreciate it.”
Mitchell, a three-sport star in football, basketball and baseball, held down the fort in the paint to limit scoring from Sanger’s big men, including 6-foot-6 Jake Gartner and 6-foot-7 Caleb Delong, who often played at the same time on the court.
“Our game plan was to make the bigs uncomfortable, sealing them off the whole game, because that was the foundation of their offense,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell was focusing on the defensive end, and the offense came as a nice treat: “It was nice tonight because I’m not usually scoring too much, but I was just trying to take advantage of screens and then using my speed.”
Mitchell said that playing multiple sports helps with his basketball: “Baseball helps with hand-eye coordination, and football definitely helps with my aggressiveness and then my footwork as well, because I was running back.”
Senior guard Isaiah Rodriguez, who has played three years of varsity basketball, said the team is motivated to make a deep run after a first-round 77-75 loss to Roosevelt in last year’s playoffs.
“We didn’t make it too far last year, but this year is a new year,” said Rodriguez, who scored seven points. “We wanted to really come out and leave our mark. So that’s what we did. We’re going to go all the way. It’s going to be a good year.”
After building a 40-24 halftime lead, Atascadero pulled away in the third quarter to put the game out of reach and outmatch the Apaches, who struggled to gain much offensive momentum.
Atascadero tied with two other county teams — Mission Prep and SLO — at 4-4 in Mountain League and now remains the last team standing.
Besides well-executed defense and ball movement, Atascadero shot at a high clip by drilling 11 shots from behind the 3-point line.
Dane Stover drained three 3-pointers on the night to tally nine points, and Damian Marano added two more deep balls toward his seven points. Kyle Foster tallied nine points.
“We always have four shooters on the court pretty much at all times.” Johnston said. “And our guys know what a good shot is and what a bad shot is. I’m 100% good with them taking the inside-out 3’s, where it’s catch and shoot. I ask them if it’s a 40% shot, and if they feel like it was, then I’m good with it. I didn’t see any bad 3-point shots tonight.”
Multiple players contributed on both ends of the floor in the convincing effort that thrilled the orange-clad supporters.
“Sanger has been pressing all year, and we knew that, and they normally don’t get out of the press, so we broke it enough to where they got out of the press and started going half-court man defense, and so that was one thing that I was proud of, because we worked hard on that,” Johnston said. “We started running our sets and getting layups at the basket. So I’m just proud of our team, and the veteran performance right there is really what you saw.”
Brayden Iniguez had a team-high 10 points for the Apaches.
Atascadero next faces Hoover at home on Thursday at 6 p..m.
Hoover 54, Arroyo Grande 51
The No. 12 Eagles (14-16) had two attempts to tie the game from behind the arc in the final seconds, but both shots just missed and the South County team came up just short.
Arroyo Grande went 0-8 in the Mountain League this year but gave the No. 4 Patriots (17-9) all they could handle on the road after a first-round upset over No. 5 Porterville.
Clovis 63, Mission Prep 55
The No. 7 Royals (15-14) fell to No. 2 Clovis (22-9) on the road in Fresno.
The loss for Mission Prep, the defending Division 2 champions, marks the end of this year’s season for a team that went to the finals the past two years and beat Lemoore in the first round last week.
Bakersfield 65, San Luis Obispo 50
The No. 11 Tigers (14-16) fell to the No. 3 Drillers (19-11) on the road.
SLO upset No. 6 Liberty in the first round.
This story was originally published February 17, 2026 at 10:08 PM.
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