San Marin Hands Terra Linda a Season-Ending Loss

Tuesday’s boys basketball game between and San Marin High was nothing like the game between the same teams in late January when TL waltzed to a 68-47 victory.

San Marin’s best player, Stuart Wesonga, missed that game. This time, in a first-round North Coast Section playoff game, Wesonga made his presence felt in a throw-down kind of way.

Although Terra Linda’s Mike Best scored 27 points in the Division III matchup, the Trojans’ season came to an end with a 70-60 loss to the host Mustangs in Novato.

Best used his 6-foot-9 frame to get the edge on the smaller Mustangs and cruised to a 13-point first quarter. San Marin has the Marin County Athletic League’s leading scorer in the 6-foot-7 center Wesonga, but nobody else on the San Marin roster is taller than 6-2.

Terra Linda trailed 34-31 at halftime, but San Marin owned the third quarter with a 19-7 run. Wesonga had 10 of his 24 points in the period and had a series of thundering dunks to help San Marin improve to 26-4 on the season.

The Trojans scored five 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, but the gap was too big to make up down the stretch. San Marin’s lead had been up to 17 points at one point.

Junior guard Markus Robinson and senior guard Johnny McEvoy each had eight points for TL.

Whenever TL was successful in shutting out Wesonga, San Marin point guard Ryan Zirkle stepped up offensively. Zirkle scored a season-high 17 points, mostly driving the lane.