Mitty too strong for St. Joseph
Mitty’s boys basketball team had just too much strength and beef down low. St. Joseph Notre Dame had no Jadé Smith.
The combination added up to Mitty’s 67-61 Northern California Open Division victory Friday night in a packed St. Joseph gym in Alameda.
The inside work of 6-foot-5 junior Riley Grigsby (22 points) and 6-6 senior Mike Diaz (16 points), plus four three-pointers and 14 points from 6-3 sophomore Joseph Vaughn carried the sixth-seeded Monarchs (18-10), who at one point this season were 5-6.
St. Joseph (30-2), which got 18 points from Cameron Ba and 14 from Darnell Duckett, had its 28-game win streak snapped. The Pilots were without their best player, leading scorer and four-year starter Smith, who had to sit out his second straight game by league rules for being ejected in a North Coast Section semifinal game.
“I feel bad for him and them, but I guess those are the rules,” Mitty coach Tim Kennedy said. “For us, this is a coach’s dream. At last, we feel like a real team.”
Mitty, which upset Bellarmine in the Central Coast Section Open finals last week, travels to Sheldon-Sacramento in a semifinal game.
The Monarchs led after every quarter, and increased the lead to 57-40 after three before St. Joseph made a spirited comeback in the fourth.
De La Salle 36, Salesian-Richmond 31:
Connor O’Dea scored seven of his 10 points in the fourth quarter as the fourth-seeded Spartans (28-5) eliminated No. 5 Salesian (27-5) for a second straight year at home in the first round. De La Salle held Salesian to just nine second-half points, two in the fourth quarter and leading scorer James Akinjo to just two points for the game. Justin Pratt did most of the defensive work on the 6-foot junior guard who has carried Salesian offensively most of the season. O’Dea also had a key block and knocked down four straight free throws after a Salesian foul and technical with 5:48 to play. That tied the game at 29-29. Emeke Udenyi (10 points) scored a basket on the next possession to give De La Salle its first lead of the second half. It would never trail again. Salesian, which got nine points apiece from Javon McClanahan and Derrick Langford, led 22-19 at halftime and 29-23 after three quarters. “Our season was on the line, so that extra little something kicks in,” O’Dea said. “It’s like I got to lock in right now.” De La Salle now plays at top seed Woodcreek-Roseville, a 68-66 winner over Capital Christian-Sacramento, in Tuesday’s semifinal.
Sheldon-Sacramento 47, Bellarmine 46:
Isaiah Duplechan came off the bench to drill a three-pointer with 10 seconds left to lift the host Huskies (29-3) to a hard-fought home victory. Two free throws by Bellarmine’s Jake Wojcik (22 points) gave the No. 7 Bells (26-2) a 45-44 lead with 46 seconds left. After a Sheldon miss, Ike Ogbogu made one of two free throws with 16 seconds left, and the Huskies quickly got the ball down court where Duplechan made the go-ahead bucket. Bellarmine, which got 12 second-half points from Kendall Stubblefield, worked the ball around and got a good mid-range look by four-year starter Angelo Athens but it was a touch long. The rebound went out of bounds, the Bells inbounded but couldn’t get a shot off as the final buzzer sounded. The undefeated West Catholic Athletic League champions did just about everything it wanted in the game, including taking a 20-10 early lead, but couldn’t prevail. Duplechan’s twin, Elishja, led Sheldon, the second seed, with 15 points.