LAKEWOOD – As the Windward High boys’ basketball team found out Tuesday night, no lead is “safe” when playing the Mayfair Monsoons and their two-headed scoring monster, aka, Josh Christopher and Dior Johnson.
Fortunately for the Windward Wildcats, though, they were able to build just enough of an advantage – four points, thanks to a couple of free throws by Marcus Joseph with a second to go – to withstand a Christopher buzzer-beating dunk, 67-65, and move on to a Friday night CIF Southern Section Division I playoff semifinal at JSerra in San Juan Capistrano.
The 6-foot-4 Christopher, selected to the 24-player, 2020 McDonald’s All-American squad last month, closed one of the best prep careers in the loss with 25 points, eight rebounds and three assists.
The 6-1 Johnson was nothing short of un-guardable, no matter the defensive scheme or defenders thrown his way Tuesday night while scoring 33 points (14 of 21 from the floor, including four 3s and his only free throw attempt).
As a sophomore, he’s got two more seasons during which to terrorize defenders and supply social media sites with an avalanche of content.
But the top seed Wildcats (23-6) were the better team, throughout the season and Tuesday night – be it just barely – than the Monsoons (17-12).
Coach Colin Pfaff’s Windward squad has three of the better players in Southern California by way of UNLV-bound senior forward Devin Tillis (14 points, six rebounds and four assists Tuesday) and sophomores in 6-9 Kijani Wright (14 points, 15 rebounds and two blocked shots) and 6-3 Dylan Andrews (nine points, five rebounds and four assists).
But it was the 6-4, 290-pound Joseph – who earned a scholarship to the Lafayette College (in Easton, PA) for the ability to block and tackle, demonstrated with the Wildcats’ eight-man football program – who came up big, literally and figuratively, for the Wildcats Tuesday night.
Joseph sank four first-quarter layups and the Wildcats were up, 25-14, early in the second quarter – before Christopher (nine) and Johnson (12) combined for all of the Monsoons’ points in the quarter to go up, 35-34, at intermission.
The Wildcats then turned in their best quarter of defense, as Johnson and Christopher missed a combined nine of 12 shots from the floor, and took a seven-point advantage into the fourth quarter.
A 3 from the left corner by junior Jaren Harris (by way of a Tillis pass) pushed that edge to double figures on the first possession of the fourth quarter.
Christopher and Johnson got back track, though, cutting the Monsoons’ deficit to four points (at 60-56).
They missed on multiple opportunities to cut more of the deficit (a missed front end of a 1-and-1 by Johnson; a missed 3 from the right wing by Christopher; and a Johnson shot blocked by Andrews) before Joseph, after a nice combo of drop step and jump stop, converted a layup to expand the lead to six points with 1:31 remaining.
Oh, what a final minute and a half it was!
Thirteen seconds later, Christopher’s 3 from the left wing was followed immediately by a timeout by Mayfair Coach Tony Davis.
Wright converted inside on his second attempt at following in a missed Harris jumper for a five-point edge with 41 seconds remaining but Johnson hit a leaning 3 from the left side while splitting a couple of defenders with 22.6 seconds to go.
With just four fouls (seven putting an opponent into the bonus), the Monsoons were forced to pick off an inbound pass or immediately foul and, after two fouls and a timeout by Windward to avoid a five-second call, Tillis was attempting to inbound again when Christopher picked the ball off in front of the Mayfair bench.
Turning and driving into the lane, Christopher drove past Harris and laid the ball in for what appeared to by a tying bucket while being fouled by Harris.
But the official ruled that the Harris reach and foul came prior to Christopher powering in for the shot and it was ruled a two-shot free-throw opportunity minus the apparent layup with 15.2 seconds to go.
Christopher missed the first free throw before swishing the second to get his team to within a point.
Windward inbounded quickly and cleanly with Tillis finally the recipient of the seventh Mayfair team foul with 7.8 seconds remaining.
Tillis’ first attempt rattled in before he missed the second and Christopher was soon sprinting to the other end on the dribble and in an attempt to take the ball all the way to the iron for a buzzer-beater to send the game into overtime.
But Joseph (pictured) held his ground, with arms straight up, between Christopher and the rim and appeared to get a piece of the ball and snapped it down into both hands while being fouled with a second to go.
Joseph converted both free throws, rendering that Christopher dunk at the buzzer moot other than providing his final points in a glorious four seasons in a Monsoons’ uniform.
In other key playoff action Tuesday night:
*Devin Askew scored 43 points and Mater Dei held off No. 3 Rancho Christian, 76-71, at Great Oak High in Temecula for its second “seed upset”.
The Monsoons can represent Pool B in the Feb. 28 Southern Section Open Division finale at Long Beach with a win at Harvard-Westlake on Friday night or a Rancho Christian win over host Centennial on the same night.
Should the host Wolverines topple Mater Dei and Centennial prevail, Harvard-Westlake (also at 2-1 with the Monarchs but holding the head-to-head tie-breaker) would get the Feb. 28 title slot.
A three-way tie at 2-1 (created by way of a Rancho Christian win at Centennial and Harvard-Westlake win) would result in Mater Dei moving on, by way of it having the biggest win “by seed” as a 7 winning at 2 Centennial last Friday night.
There is nothing complicated about Pool A: Etiwanda (60-38 over visiting St. John Bosco) and top seed Sierra Canyon (61-49 over St. Anthony at Cal State Northridge) each went to 2-0 Tuesday and will play Friday night at Calabasas High for a Feb. 28 trip to the LBSU.
*No. 2 Riverside Poly (77-49 against Sherman Oaks Notre Dame) and No. 3 Damien (scoring the final 12 points for an 84-76 decision against Valencia) join Windward and No. 4 JSerra (61-59 at Bishop Montgomery) in Friday night’s D-1 semifinals.
Riverside Poly plays host to Damien.
*Top seed Santa Clarita Christian (60-44 against visiting Fairmont Prep) visits No. 5 Chaminade (73-57 against Capistrano Valley Christian in San Juan Capistrano Tuesday night) in the upper-bracket 2AA semifinal.
St. Francis, flush off a 71-53 decision against Heritage Christian behind 24 points from UC Irvine-bound Andre Henry, will take an Altadena to Eastvale trek to face host Roosevelt in the lower portion of the bracket.
Coach Steve Singleton’s Mustangs (who finished as the runner-up to Centennial in the Big VIII League) won in overtime in Mission Hills against Alemany, 64-57, to earn their semifinal game.
Alemany joined St. Francis, Chaminade, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame and Harvard-Westlake as Mission League members that played Tuesday night.
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