SACRAMENTO – It didn’t the St. John Bosco High basketball team’s jump shooters long to get acclimated to the rims and the expansive setting of the NBA Sacramento Kings’ Golden 1 Center Friday night.
Junior guard Chris Komin missed the Braves first shot 30 seconds into their CIF State Division I championship game with North Regional winner San Ramon Valley.
But then Coach Matt Dunn’s crew hit its next eight attempts – five of those from behind the 3-point arc – and the Braves were well on their way to what proved to be a 78-62 victory.
The Braves (28-7), in winning the program’s second state crown – they won a D-III title in 2014, under then-Coach Derrick Taylor – led by as 17 points late in the first quarter.
But the Wolves (29-8) started heating up from the perimeter, too, trimming their deficit to eight points at intermission.
It was back at 10 after three quarters, though, and SRV never cracked the deficit to below double figures the rest of the way.
Six-foot-five senior Jack Turner scored 13 first-half points for the Braves and finished with a game-high 20 points, 12 of those coming on launches well beyond the arc.
Six-six junior Elzie Harrington scored seven of his 12 points in the fourth quarter to help his team maintain its reasonably comfortable cushion while sophomore Brandon McCoy Jr. high-jumped his way to 18 points, eight by way of what have become his trademark, two-handed flushes from flat-footed bursts.
But as was the case that the Braves were at their most productive and efficient, offensively, this season, crisp and quick passing and cutting freed up other Braves for quality shots, too, with Komin scoring eight of his 11 points in the second half, sophomore Dominic Perfetti scoring seven points and sophomore Max Ellis coming off the bench for a couple of 3s.
There was far from anything easy about the Braves’ victory Friday night.
But then path to the win wasn’t fraught with as many obstacles they had to overcome in their regional home wins against Windward, Damien and Mater Dei – each of which needed gut-crunching, final defensive stands to pull out.
It was the second state title team Dunn has coached, his first coming nine years ago – in his final season as the head honcho at Damien, when the Spartans won the D-III title.
The Braves won the D-I Southern Regional during the 2021 “Covid spring season” but the state finals were canceled that season.
Coach Brian Botteen’s team – which won a second consecutive Classic at Damien Gold Division title in December – got 16 and 13 points, respectively, from juniors Luke Isaak and Mason Thomas.
In the other five state finals played Friday:
BOYS
D-III
Mission Hills Alemany 63, Santa Cruz 53: The Warriors (25-15) got a combined 39 points from senior guards Michael Lindsey (25) and Jared Mims (14) to close the season with its 10th consecutive victory and the program’s second state title.
The Warriors, who were 1-6 in the Mission League, needed a non-league win on Feb. 2 to hit the .500 threshold (at 15-15) to quality for an at-large bid to the CIF SS playoffs.
Once in, they started that 10-game streak that included wins over Bosco Tech in the 3A title game and regional final Tuesday night.
Quick-jumping sophomore forward Demarco Hunter scored a team-high 22 points with 12 rebounds for the Cardinals (27-7).
D-V
Danville Athenian 67, Verdugo Hills 49: Senior guard Evan Lucas scored 20 points with 11 rebounds, seven assists, two steals and three blocked shots to lead his 300-student, private school team to the victory in its first-ever, state championship-game appearance.
The Owls (28-8) also got eight points, 13 rebounds and four blocked shots from 6-3 junior Teni Salako while holding the Dons (25-12) to .254 shooting from the field at 17 of 67.
GIRLS
D-I
Torrance Bishop Montgomery 52, Oakland Bishop O’Dowd 40: Junior guard Jordan Blackman scored 15 points and senior teammate Cyriah Coleman added 14 as the Knights (23-5) won the program’s seventh state crown in eight tries.
They led by 24 points in the third quarter before the Dragons (24-7) got as close as to within eight points in the final quarter.
D-III
Caruthers 54, Granada Hills Charter 48: Five-eight sophomore Emmi Almeida (daughter of her coach, Anna Almeida) scored a game-high 21 points, with nine rebounds and six assists, as the Raiders (25-8) won the Central Section program’s second state championship.
D-V
Oakland 56, San Diego Montgomery 50: Senior Daijha Teague (15 and 15) and junior Ojiugo Egeonu (15 and 17) combined for 30 points and 32 rebounds to lead the 23-10 Wildcats to their program’s second-ever state championship.
The 6-3 Egeonu also blocked seven shots before fouling out with a little more than three minutes to play.
Teague, a 5-4 guard, pretty must got a “push” in the assists (seven) and turnovers (eight) categories.
Montgomery (25-12) hung reasonably close despite hitting just 16 of 61 from the field (.262), largely because of Oakland’s 23 turnovers.
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