Bishop Montgomery holds on to advance to state title game
TORRANCE » Early in the fourth quarter, it didn't look like the Bishop Montgomery girls basketball team would need any late-game free throws to put away Brentwood and certainly not a last-second block.
But, sometimes, that's the way the game goes and the ball bounces and in the fourth quarter of Tuesday's CIF Southern California Division I Regional final, it looked as if everything could slip away from the top-seeded Knights.
Bishop Montgomery took a 16-point lead on a Sophia Dignadice 3-pointer early in the fourth. However, visiting Brentwood didn't go away, eventually whittling the deficit to single digits, until finally in the last 11 seconds, it was just three points.
After Jordin Blackmon made one of two free throws, Brentwood brought the ball up court and got it to Aariah Roa. Roa had made five 3-pointers in the game, a potential sixth, would have tied the game and forced overtime.
Bishop Montgomery senior Cyriah Coleman wasn't about to let that happen, coming up with a block on Roa's attempt as time ran out, allowing the Knights (22-5) to finally exhale with a 71-68 win.
This was the first CIF SoCal Regional final win since 2003 for the Knights, who will be making their first CIF State championship appearance since that year. Bishop Montgomery will face Bishop O'Dowd on Friday at 6 p.m. at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
“We knew their run was coming,” Bishop Montgomery coach Rheina Ale said of Brentwood. “Brentwood is known for that relentless energy and I knew it was going to come and I think we were a little startled in the beginning (of the run), for a lot of us, it was the first time that we played in an environment like this, but we pulled it together and we found our zone.”
Brentwood (27-9) went on a 9-0 run to cut the Bishop Montgomery lead to nine at 63-56 with 4:57 left in the game. With 36.1 seconds remaining, the deficit was just one 3-pointer away at 69-66.
Down the stretch, the Knights split their two free throws on two occasions, leaving the door slightly open for the Eagles, but on the last attempt, Coleman, one of just two seniors, made the defensive stop.
“I had to do it for my team,” Coleman said. “We had the lead, we were up by three and I knew they were a great 3-point shooting team, Aariah, No. 11 is a great player and I had to do it for my team.”
For an added bonus, the gamesaving block also came on Coleman's 18th birthday.
“Cyriah has been my captain for the past two years,” Ale said. “She's a senior, her leadership has always been something I admire about her, very coachable, she's our energizer bunny, she's always positive, she gets people going and she knew this wasn't her last game of her senior year.”
The teams met back on Nov. 29 with Bishop Montgomery winning 70-55.
Brentwood came out on fire in the first half and took a 20-15 lead after the opening quarter, but Bishop Montgomery founds its groove in the second and took a 39-35 lead into halftime.
Bishop Montgomery started to pull away from Brentwood in the third quarter. Tiara Jones scored a quick 10 points in the paint and the lead grew to 54-42 with 3:16 left. The lead was 13 at 60-47 on a Coleman offensive rebound and putback as time expired.
Lev Feiman led Brentwood with 23 points and Jocelyn Pascual had 20, with 13 coming in the first half.
Dignadice led Bishop Montgomery with 21 points, Jones had 20, Armanyie Reed scored 15 and Blackmon finished with 11.
“We've been manifesting this win since last year,” Blackmon said. “We knew we had to come out here with heart, pride, play hard the entire game and in the fourth we just tried to play together as a team, lock in and get the job done.”
Martinez went 3for 4with a double and two RBIs in an 8-5win over Banning. He followed that by going 2for 3with a threerun homer in an 8-1win over North Torrance. He started the week with a two-hit performance and pitched two scoreless innings with four strikeouts against Loyola.
Mira Costa Baseball Senior
JORDIN BLACKMON Bishop Montgomery Basketball Junior
Blackmon scored 22 points in a CIF SoCal regional semifinal win over La Jolla Country Day. Blackmon eclipsed the 1,000-point mark for her career in the game. She had 11 points in a second-round win over Corona Santiago.