The host school’s squad became the last of the 11 teams from last December’s Classic at Damien field to earn a spot in Saturday’s State Regional boys’ basketball semifinals.
And none of the first 10 had to go nearly as hard in their quarterfinals to earn a spot into Saturday’s play as did the Damien Spartans.
Coach Mike LeDuc’s team, the No. 15 seed in the Southern Division I bracket, trailed by 20 points late in the second quarter to Riverside Poly at Rancho Verde High in Moreno Valley before pulling it out, 128-123, in six four-minute overtime periods Thursday night.
You read correctly: One-two-eight to one-two-three in six overtimes – meaning the squads played a collective 56 minutes of game time before the Spartans were able to prevail in the longest boys’ state playoff game in California history.
“It was exhausting,” LeDuc, in his 46th season as a high school coach, said, en route by bus to the Spartans’ campus in La Verne.
“I’ve never been involved in a game like this.”
Then again: Who has, other than those who played, coached, officiated or sat in the bleachers watching Thursday night?
“I’ve gotten texts and calls from former players and friends, saying that were exhausted from just following the game (via social media updates),” LeDuc said.
The victory moved the Spartans (who knocked No. 2 seed St. Anthony in Long Beach Tuesday night) to 26-8 and into a semifinal with No. 14 seed Renaissance Academy Saturday night (6 o’clock) at Rio Hondo Prep in Arcadia.
Thursday’s Damien-Riverside Poly clash was a rematch of a Feb. 21 CIF Southern Section Division 1 semifinal played at Martin Luther King in Riverside and won by the Bears (whose season ended at 27-7), 63-61, when sophomore R.J. Smith couldn’t knock in a potential winning 3-pointer in the closing seconds.
The Spartans got their “revenge”, of sorts, Thursday and while overcoming a multitude of obstacles, notably that 20-point deficit (they trailed at intermission, 42-24), a 59-point performance by UC Irvine-bound guard D.J. Davis (including 11 3s) and their best player, 6-foot-3 junior Malik Thomas, fouling out in the in the first overtime after knocking in seven 3s en route to 41 points.
But Thomas – who scored 29 points with 19 rebounds in the Spartans’ win over St. Anthony – got plenty of scoring support, before and after he picked up his fifth foul:
*Six-five senior Austin Cook (pictured) scored 35 points (he had eight 3s), including a 3 from the right wing in the closing moments that sent the game into its fourth OT; a 4-point “play” (3-pointer while being fouled and the free three throw) that put his team up in the fifth OT before Davis sent things into OT No. 6; and three of four free throws down the stretch to finally put a wrap on the hoops-style marathon.
*Smith – among the most underrated sophomores in Southern California and beyond – collected significant redemption from the jumper that didn’t fall on Feb. 21 with a 27-point effort Thursday night.
*And Chris Nickelberry, the junior point guard whose playing time was limited Tuesday night in Long Beach because of early foul problems, scored 16 points and set up Cook’s 3 at the end of the third quarter off of his dribble penetration and screen.
Joining the Spartans into Saturday’s semifinals from among the Classic at Damien Platinum Division are:
*No. 5 and 8 seeds Windward and Ribet Academy, which play in the other D-I semifinal at Windward after going of the road to beat No. 4 Torrey Pines in San Diego and No. 1 St. John Bosco in Bellflower, respectively, Thursday night;
*Etiwanda (at Mater Dei) and Sierra Canyon (at “home” to Harvard-Westlake) are in high-powered Southern Open semifinals;
*Dublin, at top seed Sheldon in Sacramento, is in a Northern Open semifinal while Richmond Salesian (at home to Moraga Campolindo) faces a North D-I tussle.
* St. Francis, which captured the Classic at Damien Silver championship on Dec. 30, is the top Southern D-II seed and will be at home to No. 12 Oxnard, while Gold Division Class squads King/Drew and Roosevelt will play in Eastvale in Riverside County in the other D-II semi;
*And, finally, Classic Green Division champion Pius X/St. Matthias of Downey, the No. 3 seed, visits No. 2 Palisades in Los Angeles in D-IV Saturday.
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