Washington leads Bosco to regional title
BELLFLOWER >> Tears flowed Saturday night at St. John Bosco High thanks in large part to senior Scotty Washington and a supporting cast that delivered in the clutch in the championship game of the Division 1AA boys basketball SoCal Regional.
Washington scored a teamhigh 23 points to lead the Braves to a 70-68 victory over Ribet Academy to win the title in front of several hundred fans at St. John Bosco.
The Braves won the Division II state and regional championships in 2014. There will be no state title up for grabs this season.
Lamaj Lewis contributed 12 points to the St. John Bosco cause. The Loyola Marymountbound senior was the most emotional, as tears flowed freely down his face in the aftermath.
“This means everything to us,” he said. “This season, we didn’t know if we were going to have one. We started this long journey last June, so it all came full circle. All the time, all the hours we put in together, this is what we did it for and it feels great.”
The Braves (23-4) led the Fighting Frogs 37-26 at halftime and 69-62 with 26 seconds to play. But Ribet Academy (13-4) would not fold. Tre White led all scorers with 34 points — with 26 in the second half — and hit a 3-pointer to get his team within 69-65.
Lewis made one of two free throws for a 70-65 Braves lead with 8.7 seconds left, then the Fighting Frogs’ Barrington Hargress made a 3-pointer for the game’s final points.
But time had run out for Ribet Academy, and St. John Bosco celebrated the championship with its fans.
“We put in a lot of hours, I put in a lot of hours,” said Washington, who was 4 of 4 from the free-throw line down the stretch and hit a big 3-pointer with 2:31 to play. “We always come up short a little bit in my last four years coming here, but we got it done this year and it brought me to tears, man.”
Washington and Lewis were freshmen in 2018 when the Braves were defeated by Chino Hills in the Division 1 regional finals when Chino Hills scored the first 18 points of the fourth quarter to erase a nine-point deficit.
Washington said he knew he might have a good game Saturday.
“I felt real comfortable,” he said. “I shot it well in shootaround, so I knew most of my shots were going down. So I just went out there and played basketball.”
St. John Bosco coach Matt Dunn shed a few tears as well.
“This group has been so special,” said Dunn, in his sixth season. “Obviously, with everything we’ve been though — and this is as close-knit a group as we’ve ever had — so for them to get to hang a banner is pretty darn special.”
There were many clutch contributors for the Braves. Senior Hunter Richardson scored 11 points. He buried a 3-pointer to stave off a Ribet Academy rally and give St. John Bosco a sevenpoint lead (58-51) with 4:52 to play.
Sophomore Ray King made two big 3-point baskets in the third quarter when the Fighting Frogs had closed to within four points, both times getting the Braves back to a seven-point cushion.
Junior Jeremiah Nyarko had eight points for St. John Bosco and junior Marco Kenz scored six.
Also playing well for Ribet Academy was Mike Price, who scored 11 points. Tyler Powell chipped in with nine points and Hargress had eight.