Coronado’s Collins leads charge in semifinal win over Bishop Gorman – Las Vegas Sun News

Coronado basketball coach Jeff Kaufman likes to say that senior point guard Jonny Collins has been part of the program for six years.

When older brother Frankie played for the Cougars, Jonny was always hanging around. He witnessed the successes as Coronado transformed into a perennial Nevada contender, and he endured the heartbreak as the Cougars fell short each February in the playoffs.

Collins has one game left: the Nevada state championship game at 8 p.m. Friday.

Coronado punched its ticket to the title with a 76-55 victory Thursday night over defending state champion Bishop Gorman in the semifinals at Valley High. And it wasn’t just that the Cougars beat Gorman — the state’s undisputed premier program with a national reputation — they outmuscled and outhustled them.

“We always want to prove people wrong, but at the end of the day, we are playing for ourselves,” Collins said. “We want to make each other proud, and don’t worry about what anybody else says.”

Collins was leading the charge.

In the third quarter, with a standing-room-only crowd expecting Gorman to mount its inevitable run, Collins attacked the basket and rose for a dunk. He was fouled hard, landing on the floor and clutching his wrist.

He never considered coming out.

On the very next possession, Collins called for the ball in the corner and buried a contested 3-pointer — over the same player who had just fouled him.

That kind of toughness has defined Coronado’s run to the state final, which would be the school’s first championship in its roughly 25 years of existence.

“Of all people, I really want him to go out with a state championship because he has earned it,” Coronado coach Jeff Kaufman said.

The Cougars’ roster got a significant boost in the offseason when Munir Greig, one of the nation’s top 25 recruits in the class of 2027, transferred from the Philadelphia area. He’s one of three high-profile college prospects who joined the program.

Someone had to show them how things were done. Collins, a four-year varsity player, stepped right into that role.

“When you come to ‘Nado, you stick together as one,” Collins said. “So, we just always stuck together and got better together. We always just have each others’ back.”

Greig was the best player on the court against Gorman, calmly burying 3-pointers and threading passes to cutters attacking the basket. After each shot, he turned to the crowd with a smile and a few words of friendly banter.

Thursday’s outcome against Gorman had been months in the making.

Kaufman built one of the most demanding schedules in the country, traveling across the nation to face elite programs like Harvard-Westlake of California and Bergen Catholic, the New Jersey powerhouse, at the Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Mass. Coronado will enter Friday’s championship game with a 16-8 record, and Kaufman is making no apologies for the losses. They were by design.

The Cougars arrived battle-tested and ready for Gorman, an opponent that had seemingly always had their number when the postseason arrived.

​​“We’re playing well now and they’re sharing the ball, but most of all, if you watch them, they’re having fun, and that’s what we want,” Kaufman said.