Terrance Harris (right) has won over 200 games at Mission Prep. By Owen Main

Terrance Harris. At the age of 17, he was a one-man press break for Mission Prep. With his older brother Darnell his his head coach, Terrance led the Royals He’s still one of the fastest high school basketball players I’ve ever seen with that ball. Whether they played their home games at St. Patrick’s in Arroyo Grande or at Mott Gym, Terrance always made the Royals dangerous as a player.

As an aside, Terrance would have been a damn good football wide receiver or running back had he continued that sport and his defensive ability as a center fielder in the Mission outfield was pretty solid as well.

Fast-forward 16 or 17 years. Last Wednesday, Harris won his 200th game as the Royals’ head coach and Mission Prep continues to be the class of San Luis Obispo County high school basketball. On Friday night, MCP honored Harris with a pregame ceremony.

After a slow start to the game Friday against Atascadero, Harris’ Royals jumped in front and stayed there, winning 68-53. Kyle Colvin, Kyle Stewart, and Max Basile all had solid games for Mission, which stayed within striking distance of the Pac-8’s first-place team, St. Joseph.

Photos by Owen Main

Ben Covington takes the ball to the basket on Friday night. By Owen Main

Mission Prep had Oaks Chrstian in their sights. Once down by 20 in the first half, the Royals cut the deficit to five on a three-pointer by junior Quinton Adlesh. Brandon Jones, Patrick Laird, Kerney Lane and Kyle Stewart had clawed their way back into the game against the longer, faster Lions.

Oaks Christian was in the middle of a scoring drought. Adlesh’s three-pointer with over four minutes remaining sent the crowd into a frenzy. The gym was as loud as it would be all night.

Then Kenny Smith, Jr. did his thing. The Oaks Christian junior and son of former NBA player and slam-dunk champion Kenny Smith drove left, pulled-up from 15-feet, and hit the biggest shot of the night. The crowd temporarily hushed and, for the first time, Mission started to play a little desperately, and Oaks Christian was able to get the stops they needed to seal the game.

Kenny Smith, Jr. was a huge key to Oaks Christian’s first-half run that saw them lead by 20 points. By Owen Main

Mission, who hasn’t lost a game to a San Luis Obispo County team since (what seems like) the Eisenhower administration, was the last boys team left in the county. Oaks Christian will move-on to the 4-AA final next week.

The match-up also featured two players on opposite teams who might be future teammates. Aleksandr Abrams, the Oaks Christian center, verbally committed to play at Cal Poly earlier this season. Mission Prep’s Adlesh has one official offer so far — also from Cal Poly.

Toughest thing on the world to look in the eyes of our seniors.Love you guys and thank you.Appreciate all the support from the crowd #TeamMP

— Quinton Adlesh (@QuintonAdlesh) March 1, 2014

Photos by Owen Main

[See image gallery at www.fansmanship.com]

Mission Prep junior Quinton Adlesh takes the ball to the basket against Atascadero on Friday night. By Owen Main

In a showdown between two teams featuring the top two players in San Luis Obispo County, Mission Prep beat Atascadero 74-65 on Friday night at the Arroyo Grande Optimist Tournament.

Robbie Berwick of Atascadero (attending Florida State next season) scored a game-high 27 points, including 17 in the second half. Quinton Adlesh, a Mission Prep junior, sscored 16 first half points to give the Royals 34-20 halftime advantage. Mission would push its lead all the way up to 20 in the third quarter before Atascadero made a run to get the game within six points a few times in the fourth quarter.

Adlesh and Berwick showed why they are both future Division 1 college basketball players, but it was the play of Adlesh’s supporting cast that made the difference. Senior Ben Covington guarded Berwick as well as you can, forcing him to early long-range shots with hands in his face. Covington also nailed a pair of three-pointers in the second quarter as Mission separated themselves on the scoreboard.

Freshman Kyle Stewart also had a very good game for Mission, knocking down some clutch shots in the second half as Mission improved to 3-0 on the young season.

Atascadero is now 2-1 this season.

Photos by Owen Main

[See image gallery at www.fansmanship.com]

In this episode of the Fansmanship podcast, I talked to Mission Prep head boys basketball coach, Terrance Harris. In high school (circa 1997-99), Terrance’s Royals and my Coast Union Broncos used to battle for basketball supremacy in the long-defunct Coast Sierra League.

For the past seven years, Harris has been at the helm for the Mission boys, helping to turn them into an indpendent county powerhouse. With the Mission Prep Christmas Classic starting on Wednesday, I thought it would be a good time to catch up with Harris about coaching at Mission, this year’s team, and the 14th-year tournament that has become a SLO county preps institution.

We are going to try to be better about covering preps basketball this season in SLO County, so if you have any good story ideas or upcoming games we need to be at let us know. owen@fansmanship.com