One year ago from today, the St. Patrick/St. Vincent Bruins defeated Sacred Heart Prep 64-47 in the Northern California D4 playoffs. Yesterday, the two teams met again and the results were the same. But this time, the Bruins had to make a furious rally to win the game on a last possession layup to win 49-48 and advance to the semifinals.
In the first quarter, the Bruins came out more aggressive and forced several turnovers. St. Pat's was able to lead by as much as 10-5 before ending the quarter up 10-7. St. Pat's was somewhat fortunate to be only down by that much.
The Bruins would take a 13-9 lead in the beginning of the second quarter but the Gators would go on a 9-0 run to lead 18-13. SHP ended the half with a 23-19 margin.
The Gators led 23-22 in the third quarter when they went on a 7-0 run to take a 30-22 lead. At the 1:04 mark, they were leading 34-25 when senior Reed McConnell sustained a deep cut in the head that forced him to sit. As a result, the Bruins would take advantage of the Gators who were without their team co-captain and would only trail 36-31 at the end of the quarter.
McConnell would return at the 7:20 mark as the Gators were only leading 36-33, but they would extend that lead to 48-41 with 3:27 left. The Bruins would keep the Gators scoreless for the rest of the game. Senior Robbie Herndon scored on a game winning layup with 7 seconds left in the game to give the Bruins a 49-48 victory.
Herndon finished the game with a team-high 15 points, 10 of which came in the fourth quarter. Jason Webster also played well, adding 11 points.
How this game was won: Coach Derek Walker was proud of how his team persevered and played with grit to rally to win the game against a very talented Gator team. Walker said that the last play was to give the ball to Herndon and let him create. The Bruin defense was able to keep the Gators scoreless in the last 3:27.
St. Patrick/St. Vincent analysis: Herndon led all scorers with 18 points and came up big at the end for the team. Herndon stated that the team picked up the defensive intensity and became more aggressive in taking the ball to the rim on the offense in the second half. Despite being undersized against the Gators, the Bruins played physical throughout.
Sacred Heart Prep analysis: Coach Tony Martinelli did feel that the loss of McConnell for those two minutes limited the offense. His team did adjust to the quicker pace of the Bruins in the second quarter and was able to take a half time lead. Despite what is said about the Gator's league, the team went 25-3 and showed that they are very competitive with a CCS title in the season.
St. Patrick/St. Vincent-St. Mary's Berkeley Preview: The Northern California D4 Finals could potentially be a BSAL matchup if top seed Salesian defeats Santa Cruz. The Bruins lost to St. Mary's Berkeley in their one regular season matchup while the Bruins lost to Salesian four times already. The Bruins have the guard play to keep up with St. Mary's Berkeley but will they have the size to contain David Andoh.
No comments:
Post a Comment