STUDIO CITY, CA – Down by as many as 11 points in the third quarter – and six with three minutes to go – the St. John Bosco High team closed out its game at Harvard-Westlake in stunning fashion Tuesday night, shaking up the “status quo” in the CIF Southern Section Open Division playoffs in the process.
The Braves’ 62-55 victory over the Open’s No. 2 seed – the Wolverines came into the contest with a 29-1 record – means that three of the four teams in “Pool B” are still in the hunt for a spot in the Feb. 25 championship game at the Honda Center.
And 29-1 West Ranch (which knocked off St. Bernard Tuesday night, 79-58) is the only team that controls its championship game destiny.
*Should the Wildcats win at Harvard-Westlake Friday night, they clinch a Feb. 25 trip to Anaheim based on their 3-0 pool record.
*If the Wolverines beat West Ranch and St. John Bosco loses at home to St. Bernard (giving the Braves a 1-2 pool record), Harvard-Westlake and the Wildcats would each have 2-1 pool records. In that case, the Wolverines go to Anaheim because of their Friday night win over West Ranch.
*Should Harvard-Westlake and St. John Bosco win Friday night, the Wolverines, Braves and Wildcats would each be 2-1.
In that scenario, St. John Bosco gets the title slot because, as the No. 6 seed to the Wolverines’ 2, the Braves will have the best “seed victory” in the group.
Got it?
Comparatively, things are simple in Pool A.
*If two-time defending Open champion Centennial (2-0 in pool play) knocks off Bishop Montgomery (1-1) Friday night in Corona, the Huskies will be just a Feb. 25 date in the Honda Center from being the three-time defending Open champions next season.
*A win by visitors puts the Knights in the title game, based on the head-up with against the Huskies.
And that remains the case even if Notre Dame beats Sierra Canyon in Sherman Oaks, since, in that three teams at 2-1 scenario, Bishop Montgomery gets the edge on having the best “seed win” with its No. 4 to Centennial’s 1.
Now, back to the Braves’ stunner in the San Fernando Valley . . .
The Wolverines, despite getting little production from its jump shooters (they missed 13 of 14 attempts from behind the arc, and usually on-target Brady Dunlap and Trent Perry were a combined 10 of 30 overall from the field), were up by six points up early in the fourth quarter.
But a 3 from the deep right wing from freshman Brandon McCoy (remember that name) split the Braves’ deficit with six minutes remaining.
SJB’s Jack Turner forced a tie-up with Dunlap, with the ball awarded to the Braves.
And McCoy came through again, catching pass from sophomore Elzie Harrington for a spectacular slam.
Sophomore Nikola Khamenia pushed the hosts back up by three with two free throws with 4:45 remain but the Braves’ 6-foot-9 Xinyi Li responded 13 seconds later with a jumper from well beyond the top of the key to tie the score at 46.
The 6-3 McCoy – who didn’t play his first game for the Braves until the Jan. 4 Trinity League opener at Mater Dei, after being cleared following his enrollment earlier in the week – picked up his fourth foul with 4:18 to go and Khamenia’s two free throws put the Wolverines back in front.
The advantage climbed back to six points following a turn-around 17-footer from Dunlap and two more Khamenia free throws with 3:05 remaining.
Then things got frantic.
Harvard-Westlake junior Robert Hinton – hampered by fouls most of the game, he scored only two points – picked up his fifth and disqualifying foul while try to check another nifty drive by Harrington (who scored all 22 of his game-high points over the final three quarters) with 2:57 to go.
Harrington (pictured) hit both free throws.
McCoy blocked a Perry jump shot at the other end and was fouled, hitting two free throws to cut HW’s edge to two points with 2:15 remaining.
Dunlap scored on a sweet baseline drive to get his team back up, 54-50, 13 seconds later.
And then the Braves went on a 9-zip run, by way of a McCoy slam off a lob pass, a spinning reverse finish by Harrington, a free throw by Li, another McCoy dunk after a steal and a Turner layup after a steal and fed by McCoy.
Up five points with about 15 seconds to go, the Braves’ defense wasn’t about to give Dunlap or Perry any clean looks at quick 3s to put a dent in that hard-earned lead.
And their interior defense was finally able to contain 6-8 Jacob Huggins, who pounded the Braves for 12 points and six rebounds in the first half.
But he didn’t get a shot attempt in the third quarter and missed both attempts in fourth.
“He’s tremendous,” Braves’ Coach Matt Dunn said of the Princeton-bound Huggins. “He rebounds and runs so well. But Li was able to do a much better job on him in the second half.”
And, although the HW defenders challenged him on every drive – (he missed six of seven shots in a third- and fourth-quarter stretch) – Harrington hit eight of nine free throws and in that span, and his last two field goals.
“I just trying to get into the lane,” said Harrington, whose stoic post-game expression exemplified his on-court “calm” down the stretch. “We’ve played with big deficits before (notably, coming from 21 points down at half at home against Mater Dei before knocking off the Monarchs), so we didn’t panic.”
As for McCoy, there are an extraordinary number of quality freshmen in Southern California this season.
But there may not be any capable of having an influence in every aspect of the game like he can right now.
He scored all 11 of his points in the fourth quarter but it was his well-above-the rim rebounding and ability to challenge (and block) jump shots and pressure the dribbling and passing of the player he was locked into that turned things in his team’s favor so abruptly.
“I’ve never coached a guy who can do things he can do on defense, at this age,” said Dunn.
Leave a Reply