Cougars open the men’s basketball playoffs on road after tying for division title

The Cuesta College men’s basketball team has quietly become one of the most all-around high-achievers in the state.

One glance at the Cougars’ list of recent accomplishments, and it becomes clear that they are consistently very good. The hard part for them is getting people to take notice, especially around playoff time.

Coming off its sixth Western State Conference North title in the past nine years, Cuesta was passed over for a home game and opens the state playoffs as the No. 12 seed on the road in Chula Vista at No. 5 Southwestern today.

One in a glut of teams seeded between five and 15 in the 20-team bracket who all own between 16 and 20 victories, the Cougars (19-9) feel a little slighted to be nearer to the bottom than the top.

They’d prefer to think their conference-record-tying 10th title, 16 state playoff appearances in 23 years and five first-team all-state honorees in the past seven seasons (the most of any team in the state) would afford them some benefit of the doubt.

Additionally, Cuesta has also been awarded the highest academic honor in the state for men’s basketball in five of the past seven years, including last season, when it produced a program-record 3.19 team grade-point average.

“We have to be the program of the decade,” said Cougars head coach Rusty Blair, who has taken WSCN Coach of the Year honors in five of the past seven years as well.

“To be in the playoffs every year, to win championships and to be the scholar-athlete team every year, we have to be the team of the decade, but really, all we are is somewhere down around 12 and 13.”

Southwestern’s record as the fifth seed is just 20-8, but the Jaguars own a better RPI, which factors in the winning percentage of both their opponents and their opponents’ opponents.

In a way, the No. 12 seed is somewhat favorable since it means Cuesta would not have to face any of the heavily favored top-three seeds until at least the Southern California Regional Finals, but the Cougars would likely do well to foster that chip on its shoulder to make it that far.

Cuesta, which beat No. 6 San Diego City (20-9) earlier this season, didn’t do itself any favors in a loss at Moorpark in the regular-season finale last week. That defeat prevented the Cougars from reaching the 20-win plateau and forced them to split the WSCN title three ways with Los Angeles Pierce and Allan Hancock.

Cuesta beat six other playoff teams to win the Citrus Tournament in November but failed to sustain the success of an 8-1 start to the season.

Even with a slight fade to end the year, the Cougars did have four players average double digits in scoring during conference play, and freshman point guard Benat Hevia, whom Blair called the team’s most valuable player, averaged 9.8 points.

Rafael Casanova, the WSCN Player of the Year and one of just two active sophomores for Cuesta, averaged 14.6 points.

Sophomore forward Taylor Thompson averaged 12.9 points, and freshman guard Keshawn Liggins averaged 12.2 against conference opposition.

That’s impressive balance from a team rotating just seven players by season’s end, but Blair said for the Cougars to make a run into the playoffs, they will need Casanova to step up his scoring load.

During Cuesta’s hot start to the season, the native of Seville, Spain, was averaging more than 20 points, shooting better than 50 percent from the floor and from beyond the arc. Though Casanova has remained the team’s leading scorer, his shooting percentage cooled to 40.1 percent overall and 32.5 on 3-pointers.

Hevia leads the conference shooting 45.2 percent from 3-point range but as a pass-first, low-volume shooter, he hasn’t been comfortable taking over a game, Blair said.

“Casanova has got to go back to where he was at the start of the year,” Blair said. “The MVP of the league has got to pick it up and got to start making shots.”

This story was originally published February 26, 2015 at 11:14 PM with the headline "Cougars open the men’s basketball playoffs on road after tying for division title."