SJB holds off Ocean View in a wild semifinal

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BELLFLOWER, Ca. – Of course there as good reason why, of all of the options, I elected to attended Huntington Beach Ocean View’s 3A semifinal at St John Bosco Friday night.

I had a hunch it could be the most exciting of the CIF Southern Section playoffs being contested.

That hunch, I confidently suggest, proved correct.

The host and top seed Braves got 43 points from McDonald’s All-America guard Isaac Hamilton and needed every one of those to hang on – literally – for an 89-87 victory over a club that strafed their defense with 35 shots from behind the 3-point arc.

And the Seahawks connected on 19 of them – yes, just one short of 20 – to keep the Braves’ faithful, including Coach Derrick Taylor, holding collective breath until Hamilton picked off an inbounds pass at the buzzer to send him team to the championship game at the Anaheim Convention Center Arena next week against West Hills Chaminade.

The Braves, who trailed by as many as six points in a first quarter that was played at a dizzying pace, never got a real handle on Ocean View’s jump shooters – underclassmen Dillon Reise, Tyler Burch and Jelani Jackson combined for 16 of them – either with their man to man or zone defenses.

But the Hamilton Brothers – Daniel, a junior, missed all six of his 3-point attempts but was credited with 13 assists and six rebounds to go with his 11 points – helped the Braves pull out to a 12-point advantage early in the fourth quarter

That being said, no lead is too big for this Taylor-coached team, as it has proven so succinctly this season. “Time and score”, when it comes to passing and shooting decisions, isn’t a phrase in the Braves’ lexicon.

SJB kept launching, and missing just enough, to enable Small to make plays with the ball – most notably getting it to the Reise and Jackson, both juniors, and sophomore Burch for 3s.

Small, who has had arguably the best season of any sophomore point guard in SoCal, had the opportunity to win the game at the free-throw line for the visitors.

He was fouled while attempting a shot but was stunningly given just a 1-and-1 – he missed the front end with a bit more than a minute to go.

And then, after reserve Riley Laines missed two free throws with SJB up just a point, Small was fouled attempting a driving, off-balance attempt with four seconds to go.

Small missed both attempts and I. Hamilton was fouled and hit just the second of his free throws. But then he picked off the pass to finally bring an end to the Seahawks’ upset hopes and earn his squad ACCA reservations for a date and time to be announced by the CIF SS office Monday morning.

The season isn’t likely over the young and gifted Ocean View squad, either.

The Seahawks are expected to be part of the field when the bracket for the State Southern Regional Division III playoffs is unveiled on March 3.

Observations on other games played Friday night:

*As anticipated, Santa Ana Mater Dei, Long Beach Poly and Etiwanda advanced to Tuesday night 1AA semifinals.

The most competitive of the quarterfinals took place at Inglewood High, where the host Sentinels trailed by as many as 14 points in the second half before rallying to knock off No. 4 seed Mission Viejo.

Inglewood, led by Xavier-bound guard Brandon Randolph, gets the next opportunity to topple No. 1 Mater Dei when the Sentinels visit Santa Ana.

The other semifinal – with Poly playing host to Etiwanda as the programs hook up for the fourth consecutive post season – should be a grind-it-out, defensive struggle . . . and then some.

*Three of the top seeds in the 1A – No. 1 Lake Forest El Toro, No. 2 Santa Monica and No. 4 La Crescenta Crescenta Valley – each won by a minimum of six points.

The only top seed to get bounced was No. 3 Valencia West Ranch (by Dana Point Dana Hills) – a club some believed was the best in the division.

El Toro and Santa Monica play host to semifinals Tuesday night with hopes of also traveling to Anaheim.

*The evening’s shocker, of course, was in Torrance Bishop Montgomery suffering its first loss after being stunned by La Verne Lutheran – in Torrance – in the 4AA.

That effectively ends any chance of the Knights competing in the new “Open” division of the state playoffs. But they will still have an opportunity to win a Division IV crown since they earned a spot in regional action by getting to the sectional semifinals.