A SECOND CHANCE
Roosevelt rolls past St. Joseph, earns rematch with Harvard-westlake
EASTVALE >> The Roosevelt High boys basketball team eyed a rematch with Harvard-westlake in the immediate moments after a heartbreaking loss to the Wolverines in the CIF Southern Section Open Division championship game.
Any fears the Mustangs might be looking too far down the road were laid to rest Saturday evening.
Brayden Burries had game highs with 29 points and eight rebounds, and Roosevelt delivered a master class on defense en route to a 58-41 victory over Santa Maria St. Joseph in a CIF State Open Division regional semifinal game.
Roosevelt (31-3) has earned that rematch against Harvardwestlake (31-3), and the Mustangs will have the opportunity to avenge the 54-47 loss to the Wolverines when they head to Studio City for the regional championship game Tuesday night.
The 41 points scored Saturday marked a season low for St. Joseph (31-4), which was last year’s CIF State Open Division runnerup. Roosevelt held the Knights to single-digit points during each of the first three periods of the game (9, 9 and 8).
“I think our guys came back in the gym and were locked in,” Roosevelt coach Stephen Singleton said. “Last Friday stung, but we focused on trying to correct all of the mistakes we made in that game. And it all started with locking in on defense.”
Roosevelt pulled out a 62-61 victory over St. Joseph when the teams met in a showcase event in January. The rematch was tight throughout the first half, but Burries scored 11 in the third quarter to extend Roosevelt’s lead to double digits.
Saturday’s game featured two of the best juniors in the nation: Burries and St. Joseph’s Tounde Yessoufou.
“I always feel like I’m the underdog and just want to prove myself against other big players, said Burries, who made 10 of 17 shots from the field Saturday night. “I wanted to come out and make a statement tonight.”
Yessoufou came into the game averaging 32.9 points and 10.3 rebounds. Saturday night, he finished with only 13 points
(5-of-19 shooting) and six rebounds. Yessoufou’s point total was the second lowest of his career (11 vs. Nipomo in 2022).
Roosevelt senior guard Darnez Slater drew the defensive assignment on Yessoufou in the regional semifinal.
“It wasn’t easy, for sure, but I’m always willing to do whatever is needed for the team,” said Slater, who is headed to Colorado State. “I just wanted to play hard and aggressive and make things difficult for him.”
Points were at a premium early, as the two sides combined to make only 4 of 18 shots from the field during the first five minutes. Roosevelt took a 5-4 lead on Myles Walker’s basket with 2:48 in the first period and never gave up the lead.
“We’ve had some games where we let teams off the hook,” Singleton said. “We didn’t want to let that happen again.”
The game was still up for grabs at the halftime break, but Burries knocked down a pair of 3-pointers during the third quarter to push Roosevelt’s lead to 35-20. The Mustangs largest lead of the game with 22 points with 2:16 left in the final period.
Roosevelt showed patience on the offensive end
Saturday evening, often using 20 or more seconds before taking a shot. On one trip in the third period, the Mustangs burned nearly two minutes off the clock, thanks to three offensive rebounds.
“We watched through film of the Harvard-westlake game, and noticed how many shots we took in the first 6 or 8 seconds of a possession,” Singleton said. “We wanted them (the Knights) to play defense for long stretches. We did that tonight.”
Issac Williamson scored seven of his nine points in the final quarter to help Roosevelt close out the game. Slater and Walker each finished with six points, while Kevin “Tochi” Anigbogu added four points and six rebounds for the Mustangs.
St. Joseph was led by sophomore guard Julius Price, who finished with 16 points on 5-of-15 shooting.
With step one of the mission complete, Roosevelt can focus its attention completely on Harvard-westlake, the defending Open Division state champ. The Wolverines rallied for a 7372 victory over Carlsbad in Saturday’s other semifinal game to set up the rematch. Roosevelt already has avenged two of its three losses this season (Jserra and Centennial).
“It’s going to take an effort like we had tonight,” Singleton said. “We need to go up there and play our brand of basketball.”