Man of the moment
Chapter 15 | A senior shakes his slump to save the season
This is Chapter 15 of a Substack series chronicling the 2023-24 Natomas High School of Sacramento boys basketball team. Chapter 16 will publish this weekend.
He didn’t blink
Darius Hemmingway had every reason to doubt himself. With six seconds remaining in the opening game of the state tournament, with his Natomas High boys basketball team trailing by one point to an underdog opponent, the defensive wizard approached a free-throw line that had been the bane of his senior season.
One week earlier, during a back-and-forth Sac-Joaquin Section semifinal at Union Mine High, Darius made only 1 of 6 attempts from the stripe. One free throw attempt that evening missed the rim entirely and smacked off the backboard, drawing jeers from a merciless student section. Entering the CIF State Basketball Championships, the guard was shooting around 40% at the free-throw line.
Making matters worse, Darius had jammed fingers on his shooting hand during a recent Natomas scrimmage. A doctor gave Darius a splint and some pain relievers, telling the Natomas basketball player to ice the hand and “keep off of it.” Meaning, no extra free throws after practice. Not ideal for a multisport athlete whose high school reputation and team’s storybook season stood in the balance.
A trip to the free-throw line can make or break a legacy. It might be basketball’s ultimate test of mental fortitude — an unopposed shot that may seem routine in the driveway or an empty gymnasium, but before a packed house in the final moments of a tournament game can wilt the game’s best shooters.
Magic guard Nick Anderson, a 67% free-throw shooter in his NBA career, missed four free-throw attempts in the final seconds of Game 3 in the 1995 NBA Finals. The Rockets won in overtime and swept the series. The Magic have still never won a title. Kings center Vlade Divac, a 69% career shooter, made 1 of 2 free throws in the final seconds of Game 4 in the Western Conference Finals, setting up Robert Horry’s game-tying 3-pointer. The Lakers won the game in overtime and took the series in seven games. Sacramento has not yet returned to the conference finals.
As a junior at Providence College, Brian McKenzie stepped to the free-throw line with his team clinging to a five-point lead in the final minute against top-ranked Pittsburgh. McKenzie, now the head coach at Natomas High, calmly sank both shots to push the Providence lead to seven points. Minutes later, he celebrated with teammates as a packed gymnasium stormed the court.
“I was playing against one of my high school teammates (Pitt star LeVance Fields),” McKenzie recalls of that night. “I was focused. And I know Darius was more than focused. You could see it. He looked confident. He didn’t look away.”
Another title quest
The CIF State Basketball Championships feature the best teams in California. A committee of section commissioners ranks each qualifying team for placement across seven divisional brackets. The winners of the top six divisions in Northern California face winners from Southern California for a state title. The top 12 teams — six from NorCal and six from SoCal — form an Open Division of powerhouses programs. The next 80 teams from the North and South are then placed in 16-team brackets from Divisions I through V. Northern California also has an eight-team Division VI bracket.
Natomas has drawn the No. 2 seed in Division IV — essentially the 56th-ranked team in Northern California. Had the Nighthawks been two spots higher, they would have been the No. 16 seed in Division III, and faced a far tougher gauntlet of teams to reach the state championship game.
The No. 2 seed secures home court through three rounds. Natomas hasn’t lost at The Cage in nearly two months. The Nighthawks’ first-round foe is No. 15-seeded Menlo School of Atherton, a private school in the heart of Silicon Valley where the annual tuition — $61,635, not including books and laptop — is about equal to the starting salary for a Natomas Unified School District teacher.
Menlo School enters the Northern California tournament with a modest 16-12 record after losing in the Central Coast Section semifinals to Carmel High, a team Menlo defeated in the preseason. But the Knights have played a tough schedule of South Bay Area opponents. And in a seven-division format, this first-round matchup isn’t so much a No. 2 seed facing a No. 15 seed, but rather the 56nd ranked team in Northern California versus the 69th ranked team. And with no common opponents, for Natomas to take Menlo School lightly could be a season-ending mistake.
McKenzie called his seniors once the brackets were announced Sunday night, two days after his team’s heartbreaking defeat to Venture Academy in the Sac-Joaquin Section title game. With a chance to capture the school’s first state banner, the first-year coach wanted to make sure his team leaders weren’t dwelling on Friday’s loss.
By Sunday, though, senior forward Kahirre Louis, also a football standout, had already won the high jump and placed second in the long jump during a Saturday track meet at Inderkum High. On Monday evening, against McKenzie’s wishes, Kahirre would record eight kills in leading the school’s boys volleyball team to victory.
When McKenzie called Darius, the coach hoped to spark a level of play that earned his senior MVP honors during a three-day preseason tournament. On a Nighthawks team with only three post players, and none taller than 6-foot-3, Darius, at 5-foot-11, is often tasked with banging with bigger bodies. “I said, ‘We need the Darius from the Rocklin tournament. I need you to be aggressive. I need you to go get layups. I need you to be a dog,’ ” the coach recalled of the conversation.
In the Natomas locker room, minutes before the program’s first state tournament game in a decade, McKenzie reflected on the team’s journey since its season opener.
“There’s some stuff on this board that we haven’t erased yet,” the coach said, looking at his old notes and gameplans. “Been written here since November. It’s a testament to where we started and speaks loudly to what we’re doing and how we’re playing now. The biggest part is the experience. We went into Rio Linda to start this year and, as I also said this morning, I said, ‘For you seniors, this is your farewell. Freshman, this is your introduction.’
“This is one hell of a farewell and definitely one hell of an introduction.
“You’re no longer seniors. You’re no longer freshmen. You’re league champions. Section runner-ups. And you’re one of the scariest teams in this bracket.
“If you think this team is going to come in here and lay down, you guys have another thing coming. … If you can’t handle it now, just stay back. Because this is going to be a dog fight. I promise you. And if you’re not ready for it, with all the experience we’ve had this year, then that’s a problem. But guess what, I know we’re ready.
“We’ve been battle tested too much, too often.
“We gotta still take it.”
Johnny Benjines then led a team prayer.
“Thank you Lord for this opportunity,” the junior began. “Although our last game didn’t go our way, thank you for showing us that we have to maintain being humble and we have to work hard. The only way we will continue to play good is if we continue to give it our all and we play as a team. Let us have a good game, let us handle business on our home court, let us advance.
“Thank you lord. Amen.”
A first-round test
Manno Jenkins opened with a 3-pointer for Natomas. Moments later, Darius pushed the lead back to three with a layup. The senior guard then stole the ball and was fouled on a fastbreak attempt. After missing his first free throw, the senior adjusted the tape around his index and middle fingers. He missed the second free throw, as well, giving him 10 misses in his last 14 attempts.
Senior Achilles Terrell and freshman AP Wilkins each hit 3-pointers for Natomas. Buoyed by four defensive charges in the first quarter, the Nighthawks pushed their lead to nine points on a steal and layup by Achilles. A Joseph McNeal floater to close the quarter made the score 15-8.
The teams traded runs in the second frame. Tate Cohen capped a 9-2 spurt for Menlo to tie the score, 17-17. Dereon Jenkins found Darius underneath the basket for an easy layup to cap a 9-0 Natomas rally. But Menlo closed within one point at halftime, 27-26, after 6-foot-4 senior Sam Reznik walled off a Natomas defender on an inbounds play for an easy layup.
“If we don’t rebound, we don’t win,” McKenzie warned his players in the locker room. “If we don’t take care of the ball, we don’t win. It’s that simple. You think they don’t want to upset the No. 2 team? Are you kidding? If you guys don’t lock in, it’s going to happen.”
Aeron Wallace IV, who made seven 3-pointers in the section championship loss, opened the third quarter with his second 3 of the night for Natomas. Menlo stormed back again. Cohen and Julian Brooks hit back-to-back 3s for Menlo’s first lead, 34-31. Dereon answered with a 3 to tie the score, 34-34. Menlo pushed the lead to six points before Aeron answered with his third 3-pointer of the night. A layup by Kahirre cut the Menlo lead to two, 47-45, after three quarters.
Dereon hit a 3 early in the fourth quarter to put Natomas ahead by three. Menlo then answered with a 12-point run that put the Nighthawks on their heels with four minutes to go. Darius made a layup off a slick pass from Manno to cut the deficit to seven. During a timeout, McKenzie reminded players of their ferocious rally from 19 points down in the section title game. “A seven-point game with four minutes is nothing,” he said. “Wake up!”
Darius tracked down a defensive rebound and, with 3:12 to go, was fouled on a made layup that cut the lead to five. He missed his third free throw, with the ball trickling off the side of the rim.
Darius stole the ball. Manno cut the deficit to two, 59-57, with a 3-pointer from the left wing. With 53 seconds to go, AP cut the lead to one with another 3. When Menlo threw the ball out of bounds, Natomas had a chance to cap a stirring comeback.
AP missed a 3-pointer, but Darius chased down the rebound, ensuring Natomas a final shot. When Manno missed a corner 3 with 20 seconds remaining, Darius forced a jump ball on the rebound. The possession arrow was in the Nighthawks’ favor.
Dereon shook his Menlo defender and drove into the lane. He hit Darius with a pass under the basket, and the senior guard was hacked from behind as his layup attempt bounded off the rim.
Darius tore off the first-aid tape from his shooting hand, tossing it to the bench.
With 6.5 seconds on the clock, he stood alone about five feet behind the free-throw line as the coaches made substitutions. He wiped the sweat from his palms onto his shorts, took the ball, and hoisted the game-tying try. The ball bounced four or five times on the rim, touching about the entire 56-inch circumference of orange steel, before falling through the the net. Menlo called a timeout.
“Not nervous at all,” Darius said later. “I swear, I wasn’t. It was the tape that was throwing me off. So as soon as I took that tape off, I already knew I was going to sink both. I was going to send them boys home. That was the only thing going through my head.”
The go-ahead shot rattled home, as well.
Reznik took the inbounds pass for Menlo and drove the lane as the final seconds ticked away. His runner from inside the free-throw line bounced off the back rim. Cohen’s put-back attempt bounced off the rim as the buzzer sounded, and the No. 2 seed Nighthawks had survived a first-round upset bid from the 15th seed, 62-61.
Nighthawks fans rushed the court to swarm Hemmingway, their multisport star.
“I’m not going to lie, I had a few prayers that went up,” Natomas Principal Marcel Baker said of his thoughts when Darius stepped to the free-throw line in the closing seconds. “But that just speaks to his character. It’s been a struggle for him at the free-throw line. I take my hat off to the kid. That’s big to step up with six seconds to go, knock down two free throws in front of a packed gym.”
Darius finished with a team-high 14 points, his largest total in 13 games, and eight rebounds. And for perhaps the first time all season, in the postgame locker room, McKenzie was on the verge of tears while addressing his team.
“To have our worst free throw shooter — and I say that with him dealing with a lot of injuries, his ankle, his finger,” the coach said in the locker room. “To have him on the line in a one-point game with a chance to win it. To tie and win it. To see his confidence. To see everybody, really, like know that that shot was going in. That really got me. I’m not gonna lie. I’m very proud of Darius.”
“He fittin’ to cry!” one player yelled.
“Hey, this is the playoffs,” McKenzie continued. “This is what it is. This is what it is. A 15 seed. We deserved it. We went and took it. Let’s enjoy it. But we gotta learn from it. … That’s what it takes to grind these types of wins out. And if we can get a one-point win in state, in the championship, at home, then it must be destined for us.
“We just got to keep putting the work in.”
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.