A final heartbreak
Chapter 17 | A crushing finish to an unforgettable season
This is the final chapter of a Substack series chronicling the 2023-24 Natomas High School of Sacramento boys basketball team.
‘A hell of a run’
Dereon Jenkins sat under the flashing ambulance lights in the Natomas High parking lot. Back in the school’s gymnasium, following his basketball team’s last-second loss to Monterey High in the state quarterfinals, shattered glass littered the locker room floor. A bloodied arm. A broken window. A bitter end.
Dereon’s first high school basketball games were played in empty gyms during the coronavirus pandemic. Over four varsity seasons, the 5-foot-10 guard helped transform a perennial losing program into a section title contender. As a senior, he yielded most of the big shots to younger brother Manno and freshman point guard Aeron Wallace IV. Dereon became the team’s vocal leader and defensive stopper.
But in the final seconds of the state quarterfinals, with Monterey leading by one point, it was Dereon who went to the free-throw line with the season on the line. The senior hadn’t scored since midway through the third quarter, and was struggling with his shooting after making 5 of 10 3-pointers over the previous two games.
His first free throw went in and out.
“This is about to be the biggest free throw of this young man’s life,” said NFHS Network announcer Aaron Jackson, before Dereon sank his second shot to tie the score.
With 10 seconds remaining, Monterey star guard Ryan Roth was double-teamed at halfcourt. He passed to Suheib Ibrahim, who swung to a wide-open Nicholas Duque in the right corner. The senior guard sank the go-ahead 3-pointer with four seconds left. When Aeron’s half-court shot fell short, the Nighthawks’ state championship hopes had come to a sudden, heartbreaking end.
Dereon, with his high school basketball career over, returned to the locker room and banged his arms against a window in frustration. When the glass broke, following his team’s championship hopes, game officials who share the locker room rushed to alert administrators. Minutes later, surrounded by friends and family in the parking lot, paramedics stopped the bleeding from Dereon’s wrist. A few hundred yards away, younger brother Manno, who had scored a game-high 26 points, was consoled by classmates on a bench.
Basketball dreams, shattered and otherwise, run through Natomas and the Jenkins family.
Natomas High opened its main campus in 1997 on land purchased from immigrant farmers struggling to keep up with tax hikes on their 200-acre property. The boys basketball team won section banners in 1999 and 2000, playing its title games blocks away from campus at Arco Arena, home of the Sacramento Kings. The NBA team often practiced in the high school’s gym.
Basketball was at the heart of this booming Sacramento community.
DeAngelo Jenkins became the starting point guard at Natomas High in 2001, and hoped to lead his high school to a third section banner. His junior season ended with a loss to Foothill High in the section championship game. A promising senior season was derailed by suspensions stemming from an on-court brawl with Del Oro High.
Last season, DeAngelo returned to coach the Natomas junior varsity team alongside family friend David Lowery. DeAngelo’s sons, Dereon and Manno, who grew up playing basketball in grandma’s backyard, were starters on the varsity team. This season, DeAngelo and Lowery became varsity assistants.
Uncle Connor Schauer became the team’s public-address announcer, introducing his nephews in the starting lineups to a Natomas community that, over the years, seemed to have forgotten about its once storied basketball team. For much of this season, basketball games were played before sparse crowds. Natomas fell to 4-4 after an embarrassing 58-point defeat to Inderkum High, the north Natomas powerhouse program that began plucking away neighborhood talent after opening in 2004.
When Manno took a blow to the head against Foothill High, it was mother Cherrone who sat by his side as blood dripped from his brow onto the hardwood court. It was Cherrone who cheered with family and friends as Manno returned to lead a thrilling fourth-quarter comeback against the school that ruined his father’s title dreams. And it was Cherrone who later that night joined Manno in a Roseville hospital room.
By early January, the Nighthawks had begun to find their identity under first-year coach Brian McKenzie, a New York City transplant who consistently preached his “DNA” non-negotiables — rebounding, defense and toughness.
McKenzie doesn’t come from a basketball family like the Jenkins. He grew up in Brooklyn as a baseball fan before attending hoops-crazed Xaverian High, an athletic teenager with access to some of the best prep coaches in The Big Apple. After playing Division I college basketball and five years professionally overseas, McKenzie became an assistant coach at Xaverian High before moving to Natomas with wife Ryan, a Sacramento native, and their two young boys.
As an assistant at Sacramento High last season, McKenzie won a section crown. He began substitute teaching at Natomas in the spring, and the 35-year-old inherited an 18-win boys basketball team when coach Evan May stepped down. Morning shootarounds, which were sparsely attended at first, later helped forge a basketball brotherhood while other teams were still in bed. Natomas won seven games in a row, mostly by blowout, to capture its first outright league championship since 2014.
The resurrection of a student cheer section, The Cage Crew, brought renewed energy to the gym as Natomas coasted through the opening rounds of the Sac-Joaquin Section tournament. A second-half offensive blitz against Union Mine High, led by freshman AP Wilkins, advanced Natomas into the championship game.
But after testing the limits of their magic, a 19-point deficit proved too much against Venture Academy of Stockton. After another stirring rally brought Natomas within three points in the final minutes, the young team was left broken in their UC Davis locker room.
The CIF State Basketball Championships offered a second life, however.
At a morning shootaround before the first-round game, McKenzie and his players reflected on their season. The coach turned to Dereon. “You were a CalFit All-Star this time last year,” the coach joked, referring to the senior’s favorite gym for offseason pickup games.
As the No. 2 seed in the Division IV bracket, Natomas used more late-game wizardry in the opening rounds — game-winning free throws from a 40% shooter in Darius Hemmingway against Menlo School, and then a three-minute jolt in the fourth quarter from reserve forward Kahirre Louis against Christopher High.
McKenzie struggled to find game film on his team’s third-round opponent, Monterey, a No. 14 seed riding upset victories in the opening rounds. The Monterey basketball team page on MaxPreps didn’t include heights or weights for its players. No stats, either. Then, late Thursday night, McKenzie came across a recording of Monterey’s dominant first-round win in the state tournament. It quickly became clear that guard Ryan Roth, a transfer from Mississippi, was going to be a problem.
“We know that No. 2 (Roth) is their best player,” McKenzie told his team before the game. “He’s their leading scorer. He’s their primary ball-handler. He’s the most aggressive player. He mixes it up, scores from all three levels. Looks to get downhill. Looks to find his spot from the mid-range, and he will just pull from behind the arc. So we have to make sure we’re locked in on No. 2.
“We should never not have a body on him. Ever.”
Manno, averaging 20 points in the postseason, connected on three 3-pointers in the opening minutes as Natomas took an 11-7 lead. But while the Nighthawks shut down Roth, Kavon Collins scored 11 early points as Monterey took a three-point lead. Manno closed the quarter with a steal and three-point play to tie the game, 16-16.
Early in the second quarter, Kahirre hurt his left shoulder while defending under the basket. The multisport athlete previously hurt the shoulder during an all-star football game in January. Now, the senior outside linebacker had put his football scholarships at further risk while battling for a state championship in his fourth-best sport.
Roth hit a 3-pointer to put Monterey ahead, 22-18. The lead grew to six points when Collins snatched a rebound and scored the putback. Natomas stormed back, with Manno hitting his fourth 3-pointer — a leaning shot with two seconds on the shot clock — to tie the score. But the Nighthawks didn’t get back on defense, and Ibrahim scored in transition to give Monterey a 30-28 halftime lead.
Natomas had slowed Roth, but not Ibrahim, Collins and others. In the locker room, McKenzie called for more motion on offense. “Keep moving,” he said. “Shots aren’t falling like we want. They will right now. But we also have to use that as a weapon. Pump fake. They’re gonna bite. Let’s rip and get into the lane.”
Aeron scored the first five points of the third quarter, and Manno capped the 7-0 run with a layup. Monterey tied the game on Roth’s first 3 of the night. Then, Dereon, unable to find his touch from the outside, spun into the lane and split two defenders before flipping the ball high off the glass with his left hand, over the outstretched arm of Ibrahim, for a 39-37 lead.
Manno, with 18 points, was subbed out after committing his third foul. Another Roth 3 put Monterey ahead 47-42. But Aeron answered with his 13th point of the third quarter, and AP Wilkins had a steal and three-point play to put Natomas ahead, 48-47. Duque closed the quarter with a 3 from the left corner to put Monterey ahead, 50-48. Over the entire second half, neither team led by more than five points.
After Duque opened the fourth quarter with a jumper, Aeron beat his defender off the dribble and hit a jumper. Aeron then tied the game with a lefty layup, for 17 points in the second half. Manno returned, and hit two free throws to tie the game, 54-54. Roth, struggling to score, instead found teammates for easy buckets. Kahirre returned to the game with his banged-up shoulder. After flying for an offensive rebound, the senior forward sprinted back on defense just in time to get called for goaltending after Ibrahim was fouled. The Monterey senior hit his free throw for a 59-54 lead.
Manno cut the lead to three with a crafty, left-handed layup. Then, with under 90 seconds to play, the sophomore guard tied the game on a step-back 3-pointer.
“The shots he’s hitting are amazing in these moments,” Jackson said on the NFHS broadcast.
Manno and freshman Joseph McNeal then trapped Collins at halfcourt. Manno stole the ball and was fouled. He made 1 of 2 free throws for the lead. Then, with one minute left in the game, a no-call by referees cost the Nighthawks.
As Ibrahim drove into the lane, Natomas forward Achilles Terrell set for a charge. After Ibrahim passed to Duque in the corner, he crashed into Achilles. With the Natomas forward on his back, and referees having not blown their whistle, Collins easily grabbed the offensive rebound and scored to give Monterey a 61-60 lead.
After a Manno 3 rattled out, Achilles snatched an offensive rebound of his own. Dereon was fouled driving to the basket with about 15 seconds left, and made 1 of 2 free throws to tie the score. Seconds later, after Duque hit his corner 3 and Aeron’s halfcourt shot fell short, Monterey players rushed the court.
Dereon’s high school career had ended. By the time McKenzie addressed his players in the locker room, Dereon had broken the window and was being treated outside.
“Don’t let this take away from your season,” the coach said. “That was a hell of a season, a hell of a run. They had to get hot, hit a bunch of corner 3s. Hey, so be it. Don’t let that take away from the season. Hold your heads high. Each and every one of you, in some way, shape, form or fashion, got better this season. Just remember where you were on this day last season, and understand that you had a hell of a run. Nobody is taking a league championship from you, nobody is taking a section runner-up from you. Those of you that are returning, hopefully this right here is motivation. I hope you’re angry at the way this feels. Seniors, we thank you.
“Let’s not lose this.”
The next day, Kahirre’s left arm was in a sling. The football star had torn his left rotator cuff — his senior volleyball and track seasons in jeopardy, and Division I football scholarships placed in further doubt.
“I’m not going to let it stop me, tho,” he messaged through Instagram.
McKenzie went to lunch with wife Ryan and their two boys, making up for lost family time. The coach received a late-night call from Dereon, shortly after the senior leader received seven stitches in his wrist. Dereon explained his emotions after the game.
“It shouldn’t happen, but it happens,” McKenzie said by phone from the Natomas gym, where he was watching over a youth basketball camp and doing the team’s laundry. “Regulating emotion is a big thing. He held on to it until the end.”
Nick Lozito is a freelance sportswriter based in Sacramento. He has 20 years of sports journalism experience, covering high schools and colleges, NBA, WNBA, MLB and NFL. His writing has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, The Sacramento Bee and KQED.