Big 3rd-quarter rally produces crown

SACRAMENTO — Coach Derek Walker rattled off all the reasons his St. Patrick-St. Vincent team captured Vallejo’s first boys state championship Saturday with a 59-46 Division 4 victory over Helix-La Mesa at Golden 1 Center.

Togetherness. Toughness. Balance. But more specifically, the team’s impressive victory was fueled by a 25-7 third-quarter run after 14 straight missed shots to finish the first half. The Bruins simply went to attack mode, and four-year players B.J. Standley (game-high 16 points) and Tavian Henderson (12 points, 10 rebounds), a 6foot-4 power forward, led the charge.

“We were settling for too many threes,” Walker said. “Tavian had taken only four shots. We had scored only 19 points. We average close to 70. We knew that wasn’t us. We just needed to keep pushing.”

And that they did, also getting big contributions from Marquel Johnson (12 points) and especially Romeo Mays, who made five of six shots to also score 12 and pulled down six rebounds.

Best of all, the Bruins (28-7) locked down on the defensive end, limiting the longer and equally athletic Helix (31-6) to 25 percent shooting (15-of-59). A stingy and smart zone collapsed on Helix’s bigs, namely 6-10 Miles Norris and Jaylen Arnold, who had a combined 22 points on just 6-for-23 shooting.

“They were better than us today. They were the better team,” Helix coach John Singer said. “They played four quarters and we just played one. On the biggest platform, they got the job done.”

Walker, who won a section title as a player at SPSV in 1992, said pride might have been the biggest reason for his team’s title. The school’s football team also won a state title. Five players off that team, including Johnson, Akil Edwards and Marshel Martin, now have two state crowns in four months.

“It’s a good time to be a Bruin,” Johnson said.

Doesn’t Henderson know it. Asked about winning a state crown in an NBA arena, he said: “It’s really indescribable. I’m honestly so happy I can’t even capture it in words.”