Following Familiar Footsteps : Peninsula’s Matt Acres Is Emerging From the Shadows of His Brothers

Matt Acres dunked in a game for the first time last week. Stealing a pass near the sideline, the Peninsula High forward drove two-thirds the length of the court and slammed the ball through the basket against visiting Leuzinger.

The dunk came in the 20th game of Acres’ senior season.

So, what took him so long? After all, doesn’t Acres stand 6-foot-7? Doesn’t he have the same genes as his older brothers, Jeff and Mark, both of whom have made their living playing professional basketball?

Shouldn’t the youngest member of the Acres family have been rattling rims long before last week?

“His high school career hasn’t been too much,” said Dick Acres, Matt’s father and a former prep and college coach. “If you saw him play two years ago, you’d have said, ‘Oh, jeez.’ He was small and could barely get up and down the court.”

The elder Acres has a considerably different opinion of his son today.

“He’s coming along,” Dick said. “People might not agree with me, but I think he’s going to make a fine Division I (college) player.”

A late bloomer, Matt has quickly developed into one of the South Bay’s finest high school players during his first season on the varsity. He leads Peninsula in scoring, averaging 18 points a game, and ranks among the team’s top rebounders. His play has helped Peninsula to a 15-7 record, including a second-place mark of 3-2 in the Bay League.

“He’s been our one consistent offensive force the entire season,” Coach John Mihaljevich said. “He’s really valuable to us in the sense that he does a lot of things well. On the offensive end, he’s mobile enough to shoot the three-pointer, but he also plays in the power-up spot.”

A few years ago, though, Mihaljevich wondered if Matt would ever be an effective post-up player because of his size.

“He was about 6-2 at the end of his sophomore year,” Mihaljevich said. “We were all wondering if there was going to be any more growth. But, sure enough, he took off and started to fill out.”

Mihaljevich’s expectations were based on the heights of Matt’s brothers, whom he coached at Palos Verdes High. Jeff, 31, is 6-8 and has played professional basketball abroad for several years, most recently in Japan. Mark, 30, is 6-10 and has played for three NBA teams--the Boston Celtics, Orlando Magic and Houston Rockets. He was released by the Rockets earlier this season and hopes to sign with another team after he recovers from a pulled calf muscle.

Matt has learned to live with comparisons to his older siblings, who had outstanding high school careers. Mark was the Southern Section 4-A Division player of the year as a senior in 1981.

“There’s a little pressure,” Matt said of playing in his brothers’ shadows. “I just go out and play, that’s all you can do. What happens happens. I’ve run into people who’ve known my older brothers. Most people don’t think I’m related because of the age difference.”

Dick Acres, 58, said he has a closer relationship with Matt than he did with his older sons because he no longer coaches. He capped a 12-year run as Carson High’s basketball coach with the State Division I title in 1982. After that, he was the coach at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa for three seasons. The team, led by Mark and Jeff Acres and former Carson standout Sam Potter, reached the NCAA tournament in 1984. Matt was a ball boy.

“I’ve probably spent more time with Matt than with Jeff and Mark,” Dick said. “I was coaching and officiating and away from home a lot when Jeff and Mark were in high school. But we’re all good friends, all my boys.”

The closeness of the Acres family is evident at Peninsula games. Dick and wife Sandi are regulars, and Jeff and Mark attend as many games as their schedules allow.

“What I’ve always enjoyed seeing in their family is that they’re always supportive of one another,” Mihaljevich said. “Mark and Jeff, when not involved in their basketball pursuits, have always come to see Matt play.”

Because of the age difference, Matt never competed against his brothers in basketball growing up. But Sandi Acres remembers her sons engaging in several fierce battles in other activities.

“The older boys always treated Matt like he was their age,” she said. “They used to play pool and try so hard to beat him. I used to laugh.”

Said Matt: “They picked on me, but I could handle it.”

A sibling rivalry was more evident between Jeff and Mark.

“With Jeff and I, it was a lot more heated,” Mark said. “We came up playing in the same soccer leagues, Little League and basketball teams. With Matt, it wasn’t so much basketball. But in pool and golf, we’d get at each other. In golf, we’re all in the same ragged group.”

One of the reasons Matt hasn’t developed in basketball as quickly as his brothers is because he wasn’t held back in school. Jeff and Mark, both born near the end of the year, started kindergarten a year late, and were 18 for their entire senior seasons at Palos Verdes.

Matt won’t turn 18 until May.

“It was a real blessing that we held (Jeff and Mark) back,” Sandi Acres said. “Dick had asked me to because he knew it would help them in sports.”

The Acres had intended to hold Matt back a year, but Sandi said she changed her mind when she had difficulty enrolling Matt in a pre-kindergarten class.

“If you put Matt as a junior, where Jeff and Mark were at his age, then he’s right on schedule,” Dick Acres said. An extra year probably would have helped Matt earn a spot on the Peninsula varsity team last season. But because of the high level of competition at the newly consolidated school, which combined the student bodies of Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills and Miraleste, only one non-senior earned a varsity spot.

Matt led the junior varsity squad to a 24-0 record and was named the team’s most valuable player. He averaged 11 points a game.

“I only played half the game, we blew everybody out by halftime,” Matt said. “I would have liked to play two years of varsity (basketball), but there was nothing I could do about it.”

Matt improved his game last summer by playing four to five times a week. The improvement was noticeable in Peninsula’s fourth game this season when Matt scored a career-high 29 points in a 66-54 victory over Lakewood in the third-place game of the Pacific Shores tournament.

“He has improved particularly in strength and foot speed,” Mihaljevich said. “With some more growth and filling out, he’ll be a real good redshirt candidate at the college level.”

Matt, who is left-handed (his brothers are right-handed), has a soft touch around the basket and handles the ball well. Although he plays power forward and center for Peninsula, he probably will play small forward in college. He has been contacted by San Diego State, Cal State Long Beach and Pepperdine.

Scout Don Mead said Matt should be getting more attention from colleges.

“I think he’s a real good prospect,” Mead said. “He can play more than one position, he’s fairly quick and he’s still growing. He has the potential to be a fine player.”

Matt has grown about five inches in the past two years, and some believe he won’t stop until after high school.

“He’s growing exactly like Jeff,” Dick Acres said. “If he follows the same pattern, he will be 6-8, 6-8 1/2.”

Matt’s growth as a basketball player reached an emotional high with his dunk in last week’s 70-41 victory over Leuzinger. He led Peninsula with 25 points on 11-for-14 shooting.

Dick Acres said the fear of missing prevented Matt from attempting a dunk in a previous game.

“He felt good about himself on the dunk,” Dick said. “That was good for him. He grew a little bit. At least he tried it, even if he would have missed it.”

Although shy and quiet, Matt possesses a quick wit and good sense of humor. He was ready with an answer when asked about his goals in basketball.

“I’d like to take it as far as possible,” he said. “It’s better than getting a real job.”

You know Matt’s brothers would take that as a compliment.