HUNTINGTON BEACH – A 100-mile or so Friday round-trip from La Canada was a small price for the St. Francis High boys’ basketball team to pay for a nifty come-from-behind CIF Southern Section Playoff-opening victory over the host Marina Vikings.
Trailing by 13 points late in the second quarter and by five going into the fourth quarter, the Golden Knights got all 21 of their points over the final eight minutes from Dennis Flowers III and Andre Henry to prevail in the 3AA contest, 66-62.
Coach Todd Wolfson’s squad earned a Tuesday night, second-round home game in La Canada against another Orange County-based opponent in Pacific Coast League champion Beckman of Irvine.
The Wave League-champion Vikings (16-13) had a decided size and crowd advantage Friday night, via 6-foot-9 Dean Keeler and fellow senior 6-4 (and Lehigh University-bound) Jakob Alamudun and a nearly full set of bleachers on their side of the gym.
But the Golden Knights – who didn’t have a starter listed taller than 6-2 – tightened their half-court defense and did some damage with a half-court trap to finally at least soften the damage that Keener (17 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots) and Alamudun (25 points) were doing to them.
And Flowers (25 points, after missing his first five shots) and Henry (PICTURED/29 points, nine rebounds, five assists and two steals) proved pretty much un-guardable in the second half.
They scored 34 of their team’s 42 second-half points to help the Golden Knights (who finished sixth in the Mission League but got an at-large bid to the playoffs) improve to 23-7.
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