St. John Bosco rallies to knock off Long Beach Poly

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BELLFLOWER – The St. John Bosco High basketball team rolled a Hard Eight on its Long Beach Poly counterpart Saturday night.

After falling behind by five points after Malik Salahuddin’s 12-footer with 2:50 remaining, the host Braves outscored the Jackrabbits 8-zip the rest of the way to pull out a 64-61 victory in the State Southern Regional Division I quarterfinal.

Coach Matt Dunn’s team, the top seed in the division after winning the consolation crown in the Southern Section’s Open Division playoffs, will be back in its gym Tuesday night for a semifinal against Temecula’s Rancho Christian.

The Braves and the Eagles (who beat visiting Rancho Verde Saturday night, 67-51, couldn’t be more familiar with one another.

Dunn’s team has played – and beaten – Coach Ray Barefield’s squad twice this season, 73-66 in a Dec. 27 quarterfinal in the Platinum Division of The Classic at Damien, and 72-64, at home, during a consolation semifinal of the Southern Section’s Open Division.

The winners of the third SJB-RC clash and the Pasadena at Chino Hills Tuesday night rematch of the Southern Section D-I championship game (won by Chino Hills, 72-56) will play in the regional final next Saturday at Long Beach State.

As was the case in the Southern Section D-I semifinal at Chino Hills (when they had no answer for the inside dominance of 6-foot-9 Onyeka Okongwu), the biggest obstacle – pun intended – for Coach Shelton Diggs’ Jackrabbits Saturday night was the presence of St. John Bosco’s post presence.

And 6-6, 235-pound Jonathan Salazar (PICTURED) proved to be just about as formidable for a Poly squad that didn’t starter a player bigger than 6-3 and 180 pounds or so.

Salazar, originally from Panama and a transfer from Trinity International in Henderson, NV, who didn’t become eligible until the Braves’ Jan. 5 Trinity League opener at Orange Lutheran, crushed the Jackrabbits in and around the lane with 18 points, 15 rebounds and three blocked shots.

But the perimeter quickness and skill that Diggs has put on the floor all season seemed on the verge of helping the Jackrabbits extend its season at least three days Saturday night.

A jumper by Giordan Williams (who scored 19 points) pushed his team’s advantage to three points (at 49-46) with 55 seconds to go in the third quarter.

Fernando Gomez, taking a nifty pass from Salazar in the low post from Salazar, dropped in his third 3 with 19 seconds to go but slick senior Darryl Polk Jr. hit a 15-foot runner at the buzzer to keep the Jackrabbits up going into the fourth quarter.

Salazar – who scored eight points in the fourth quarter – powered in a layup with 2:38 to go to start the decisive 8-0 Braves’ run against the Jackrabbits (23-9).

After Justin Rene missed a jumper for Poly, sophomore Jordan Brown missed two free throws for the Braves with 1:43.

But the hosts secured the offensive rebound and Christian James eventually scored with 1:28 to go.

At the other end Rene missed another jumper, Salazar snagged the rebound and he eventually carved out his space on the right low block and was fouled with 48 seconds remaining, knocking in both free throws for the tying and go-ahead points.

After a timeout, Poly got the ball where it wanted – into the Polk, one of the best point guards in Southern California.

The 5-10 Polk, while being challenged by Salazar, just missed on a drive from the left but snagged his miss and just missed the follow with Salazar snaring the rebounding this time and the Braves calling a timeout with 14.8 seconds remaining.

Inbounding from the baseline against Poly’s tenacious pressure, Salazar got the ball to sophomore Josh Camper, a sophomore with heavy ties to Poly High.

Camper’s dad, Brian Camper, was an all-Southern Section selection at Lakewood High who later played at Arizona State and Long Beach State.

But he also has a couple of uncles, Vincent and Demetrius Camper, who were standout basketball and football players, respectively, at Poly.

And Camper calmly sank each of the most important free throws he’s taken in his life.

Needing a 3 to send things into overtime, the Jackrabbits got the ball to Polk but his attempt from the deep right wing was well off with three seconds to go, and the Braves secured the rebound and victory.