Bruins advance to section title game
St. Pat’s rallies from 11-point deficit in second half, defeats St. Joseph’s
There was no disco ball at the Bruin’s Lair. Fans didn’t wear bell bottoms and there were not any rumblings about a Watergate scandal in Washington D.C.
However, the St. PatrickSt. Vincent High boys basketball team is making a 1970’slike run throughout the North Coast Section Division III playoffs.
For the third straight game, the Bruins did not hit a 3-pointer. This time, St. Pat’s
had to overcome a double-digit deficit to defeat rival St. Joseph Notre Dame 53-47 Tuesday in the section semifinals.
The No. 2-seeded Bruins will play top-seeded Branson (29-2) for the section crown later this week. A day and venue have not been confirmed by the NCS.
The 3-pointer didn’t come into existence until the 1980’s, and St. Pat’s looked like the
shot did not exist. Instead, the Bruins rallied back the ole fashioned way — relying on their two post players and getting some stifling defense from everyone else on the court.
Junior forward Jalen Alexander finished with a game-high 25 points and added nine rebounds. Senior center Dishon Jackson scored 11 of his 13 points in the second half and added six boards despite being in foul trouble throughout the contest.
Alexander hit the goahead shot with 5:40 left in the fourth quarter after a feed from teammate Alyas Vigil. Alexander converted a three-point play in the waning seconds of the third quarter to cut the Pilots’ lead to 38-36, bringing the crowd noise to a feverish pitch.
“He’s a tremendous athlete,” St. Pat’s head coach Derek Walker said about Alexander. “He plays with strength. He doesn’t shy away from contact. That makes all of the difference in the world.”
Alexander said St. Joe’s
(23-8) simply played harder than his team for long stretches before he and his teammates began to regain focus.
“We feel like we were telegraphing most of our passes, and that’s why they were getting so many steals,” he said. “We just started taking better care of the ball.”
Jackson hit a big foul shot with 1:13 left to make it a three-point game at 50-47 and then rebounded a Pilots’ missed shot at the other end of the court with 35 seconds left. Finally, he converted a three-point play with 22 seconds left for the final margin of victory.
“Sometimes I have rough starts so I have to figure out a way to get myself going other than offense,” said the 6-foot-11 Jackson. “It starts with defense, just getting rebounds and steals.”
Jackson hit the first field goal of the game for the Bruins (21-10) with a dunk but he was held scoreless for the rest of the first half. The two teams remained close throughout the first quarter as the Pilots led 14-12.
St. Joe’s then scored seven of the first nine of
the second quarter to extend the lead to 21-14 after a 3-pointer from Jayelen Jones concluded the run. A bucket from Alexander spurred a short 6-0 spurt as the Bruins found themselves back to within four at 24-20. The Pilots then scored the final six of the half with Elijah Palmer grabbing a steal and layup just before the buzzer sounded to give his team a 27-20 lead heading into the locker room.
The Pilots got hot from 3-point land in the third quarter with Palmer hitting two and Jones hitting one as they led by 11 at 3827. Jones led St. Joe’s with 17 points and Palmer added 15.
That’s when the Bruins finally woke up. Senior guard Jalen Scott, just back from injury after missing the first two playoff games, hit a layup to start an 8-0 run to finish the quarter. Alexander’s key threepoint play with 0.2 seconds left was a huge momentum turner heading into the fourth quarter.
“I did peak up at the scoreboard for a second,” Alexander said about getting the shot off before the buzzer. “I felt like I could get there in time.”
Early in the fourth, Jackson set up Vigil for a bucket to get the Bruins to within 39-38, and Vigil assisted Alexander for his goahead bucket with 5:40 remaining. St. Joe’s stayed close and Cheikh Gueye’s put-back with 1:34 left cut the lead to 49-47. The Pilots, however, would not get any closer as Jackson took over the final minutes.
Walker said even though his team was down double digits in the second half, there was no time to panic.
“There were still plenty of minutes and (St. Joe’s) wasn’t scoring that much either,” he said. “It was a big-time defensive battle and I told my boys ‘It’s the first one to 50.”
Walker said he wasn’t that worried about one of his key players fouling out in a foul-heavy contest either.
“No, it usually works itself out,” he said. “I think it was 8-3 us in fouls in the first half but we got to the bonus first in the second half. You have to keep plugging away, keep competing. It’s a long game so you can’t panic in the first half.”