Davis High fans hope that Wednesday’s Delta Valley Conference showdown with Franklin won’t be the final home game of the regular season for the Blue Devil boys basketball team.

Moving up the charts faster than a Bruno Mars release, DHS is on a four-game winning streak and has climbed from the abyss all the way to No. 13 in the Sac-Joaquin Section rankings.

“We want to get this one and Friday (at Elk Grove),” said Devil co-captain Tyler Sousa. “It would be really good not only to make the playoffs, but to get a home game.”

Davis (14-10, 5-3 in the DVC) host the fourth-ranked Wildcats (17-5, 7-1) in a game that local coach Dan Gonzalez knows has far-reaching meaning.

“We want to keep it rolling (Wednesday),” the veteran coach told The Davis Enterprise. “We want to cement our place in the playoffs.”

But Gonzalez says this crucial outing — which is Senior Night — also will serve as a yardstick for just how far the Blue Devils have come.

Remember, this is a team that put in a completely new style of play only five weeks before the regular season began.

Called The System, it is an up-tempo hybrid of what DHS assistant coach Gary Smith ran at the University of Redlands for almost a decade.

The evolution came quickly as Davis has been California’s top-scoring prep team since the first couple of weeks of the season. Getting the multi-dimensional routine down to where all the shifts — the Devils substitute five players at a time every 60 to 90 seconds — had complementary pieces and to a point at which everyone was on the same page, took a little longer.

With the recent 104-66 victory over Laguna Creek — and sharp wins over Grant and Monterey Trail — Gonzalez likes where he troops are these days.

In his 13th year as varsity head coach, Gonzalez believes the Franklin encounter will give everyone a feel for how his crazy-paced Blue Devils stack up against the region’s elite teams — or if DHS has become one of those elite schools.

Tip-off is 7 p.m.

Notes: Guard Hayden Russell continues to ignite the Devil offense while playing a hard-nosed defense that has, on average, helped his team shave 15 points a game off opponents’ scores this month. Russell’s dead eye at the charity stripe has been an integral part of Davis’ recent run. … Of the 18-man Blue Devil roster, nine are seniors. … Also before the game, the 1962 Davis High unbeaten basketball team will be honored. Team members and families of deceased players will be on hand.

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