Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025 | 2 a.m.
Some will say the Silverado High School basketball team doesn’t belong in today’s large-school state semifinals.
Just don’t tell that to the Skyhawks’ players, who are a confident bunch after upsetting top-seeded Coronado 59-58 Friday to earn a spot in the semifinals against Mojave at 8 p.m. at Clark High School.
“We were supposed to lose. We were the lower-seeded team,” said senior forward Travis Fralin, who sank two free throws with 1.8 seconds to play for the decisive points in the playoff shocker. “We didn’t see it that way. We expected to compete with them.”
It’s fair to say the Silverado victory was one of the most notable upsets in decades on the local prep circuit — in any sport.
The Skyhawks enter the semifinals with a 12-14 record and are ranked 23rd in the state, according to MaxPreps. They qualified for the postseason only when Centennial forfeited a handful of games — including a win against Silverado — to upend the standings and propel the Skyhawks into the field as the lowest seed.
As soon as the bracket was set, players told coach Cyril Franklin they were going to give Coronado fits.
They felt a 20-point loss in the regular season to Coronado was closer than the score indicated, Franklin said. There were signs his team was coming into its own and could compete.
The Silverado coach may have been the only one to share his squad’s confidence.
Coronado, which went undefeated in league games, has at least three Division I players in its starting lineup. And Coronado spent months traveling the nation playing in some of the top prep events.
“We really thought we let Coronado off the hook,” Franklin said of the initial meeting.
Silverado won three of its final four regular-season games after finally getting its full lineup on the court. Much of the losing record, Franklin said, is the product of the team’s top three players — Fralin, Kayden Goss and TraVaughn Jensen Brigance — missing significant time with injuries. Jensen Brigance led Silverado with 19 points in the Coronado win.
Fralin returned after breaking both of his feet last year.
Fralin sensed a showdown with Coronado would provide the stage to showcase his abilities. It turns out, that stage was standing alone at the free throw line with Silverado’s season on the line.
He calmly sank both free throws, and each were nothing but net. He finished with 18 points.
“My mindset going in was, ‘Today is going to be the day,’ ” Fralin said. “I was going to give it my all and something special was going to happen.”
Beating Mojave today will be another challenge.
Mojave has one of the city’s top players in UC Santa Barbara signee CJ Shaw, a senior guard who led the Rattlers to the second-tier state championship as a freshman and sophomore. Two years ago, Mojave beat Silverado in the title game.
The Silverado players don’t seem bothered about the recent history. Mojave, just like Coronado, will provide stiff competition. Mojave, just like Coronado, is a quality team — as is Silverado.
A healthy Silverado Skyhawks roster is one of the state’s best, Franklin argues. Today, they’ll have a chance to prove it.
“When we started to click, we started believing we could beat whoever we played,” said Goss, who had 17 points and seven steals against Coronado.
At 4:40 p.m. Thursday, the other semifinal pits defending state champion Bishop Gorman against Desert Pines.
The state championship game is 8:15 p.m. Friday at Cox Pavilion.
Silverado, which opened in 1994, has never won a championship in boys’ basketball.
Regardless of the outcome, Franklin smiles from ear to ear when talking about the pride he has in his program.
“This is huge for our kids,” Franklin said. “They’ve worked so hard to get to this spot. This is why I do what I do (in coaching). Nobody else believed in us, but we believed in ourselves.”