LONG BEACH – Two Del Rey League boys’ basketball programs sent the last of the top four seeds in the division packing Friday night.
On an evening when the St. Bernard High Vikings eliminated No. 1 and host Riverside Poly, the St. Anthony Saints provided the other CIF Southern Section Division I “upset”.
The Saints, playing in Jack Errion Gymnasium and on the floor named for the greatest player in the school’s history (Darrick Martin, who was in the building for the game), shellacked No. 3 Colony from the get-go with a barrage of 3s and a flurry of forced turnovers, 75-54.
Senior guard Lucas Gray – a transfer from Los Alamitos who didn’t make his St. Anthony debut until a Jan. 12 Del Rey game with Cathedral – was 4-for-4 from behind the 3-point arc in a first quarter that ended with the Saints up by 20 points (31-11).
Several of those 3s were set up by some of the seven turnovers the Titans (25-3) committed over the first quarter, which ended a millisecond before St. Anthony’s Jaayden Bush knocked in a 3 of his own from the left wing.
Gray finished with 24 points (10 of 13 from the field) and four assists while 6-foot-8 Elijah Price – the best of the unsigned “big” seniors in Southern California – added 20 points with 12 rebounds and three blocked shots.
The Saints (18-7) play host to St. Bernard (which prevailed in Riverside, 58-50), in a Tuesday night semifinal.
It will be the third meeting between the Del Rey foes, with the Vikings prevailing on their home court (50-48, on Jan. 19) and on Darrick Martin Court (52-48, on Feb. 2).
In the other semifinal, St. John Bosco (which cruised past visiting Loyola Friday night, 73-64) visits San Juan Capistrano Tuesday night to face JSerra (a 65-56 winner at St. Francia Friday) in an “all-Trinity League” semifinal.
The Braves (22-8) – who’ve won six in a row – lost at JSerra, 63-52 (on Jan. 7) and beat the Lions (59-54) 18 days later in Bellflower.
Friday night, in front of a near-capacity crowd, the Saints got a 3 from Gray to start things and never trailed, pushing their advantage to as many as 30 points (65-35) a couple of possessions into the fourth quarter.
Gray (pictured) averaged just 2.6 points per game as a junior last spring and early summer for Los Alamitos during the “COVID-adjusted” 2020-21 season.
But St. Anthony Coach Alan Mitchell (in his first season after Allen Caveness left last June to become an assistant at Long Beach State) knew he had an elite jump shooter in the program when Gray transferred in late in the summer.
And, although he knew Gray wouldn’t become eligible until Dec. 27 (after his required “sit-out period” following a transfer that didn’t include a change of residence), “we played him a lot in the fall leagues and gave him a lot of reps (with the first team) in practice so that he would be ready once he could play,” Mitchell said after the wire-to-wire win that put the program in a Southern Section semifinal for the first time in four years.
When COVID issues kept the Saints from playing in the Dec. 27-30 Classic at Damien, that debut was put on hold for another 16 days.
Only a month into what will be a brief St. Anthony “career”, Gray – though his Del Rey performances and, especially, Friday night – has more than justified Mitchell’s pre-season analysis of Gray.
“I had some pretty good shooting games before (at Los Alamitos and in the “non-high school seasons”),” Gray said afterward.
He smiled.
“But, no, nothing like this,” he added.
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