MONTGOMERY WINS WITH SMOTHERING D
It was like watching a race horse and a dump truck.
Both will deliver the goods, but in completely different fashions.
Wednesday night in the San Diego Section Open Division semifinals, the dump truck got to the finish line first as Montgomery used a smothering defense to beat Carlsbad 56-48 before a standing-room-only crowd and advance to Saturday’s title game.
The third-seeded Aztecs (25-5) will take on topbut
Montgomery 56, Carlsbad 48
seeded St. Augustine at 6 p.m. at Cathedral Catholic.
St. Augustine beat San Ysidro 83-67 in the other semifinal.
“The kids were locked in,” said Montgomery coach Ed Martin.
“I think our length really bothered them.”
Second-seeded Carlsbad (24-6), which had been averaging more than eight made 3-pointers a game, was 1 for 13 from behind the arc.
“The coaches prepared us well,” said JJ Sanchez,
Mongtomery’s scorer with 19 points.
“Carlsbad is a really good team with really good players. We knew we had to play defense to win this game.
“Carlsbad was the No. 2 seed for a reason … they’re good.
“But we’ve been grinding all season. We came up a little short last year, so getting to the finals means everything.”
JJ Sanchez also had seven rebounds.
Alek Sanchez, JJ’s twin brother, finished with 12 points and made all six of his free throws in the fourth leading quarter.
Devin Hamilton finished with nine points and six rebounds.
Hamilton, David Soto and JJ Sanchez provided the defensive length for the Aztecs.
“That was our game plan,” said Hamilton. “We wanted to take away something they do really well.”
Jake Hall led Carlsbad with 16 points. Plus, he had seven rebounds.
Cole Murray added 12 points and blocked a pair of shots.
Tony Duckett scored nine, had four rebounds and two blocks.
“Montgomery is a tough, physical team,” said Carlsbad coach Clark Allard.
“It’s not a style we see much.
“We knew it was going to be tough.”
All eight teams in the Open Division advance to the Southern California Regionals.
Montgomery led 15-11 after the first a first quarter in which the score was tied once and the lead changed hands four times.
The Aztecs stretched the advantage to six on the first basket of the second quarter, Carlsbad wrestled the lead back 23-21 with 4:10 left in the half on a Hall 3-pointer.
The lead changed hands four more times before Montgomery opened a fivepoint advantage with 2:10 to play.
Carlsbad had it down to two before a foul with 1.5 seconds to play put Alek Sanchez on the line. He made 2 of 3 free throws to put the Aztecs up by four at the break.
Montgomery led by as many as seven in a low-scoring third quarter.