St. Pat’s boys hoops wins in final seconds
Scott’s heroics in waning moments lift St. Patrick-St. Vincent past San Ramon Valley in NorCal Division II State Playoffs
On Super Tuesday, Democrats, Republicans, Independents and even Green Party voters could agree on one thing — St. PatrickSt. Vincent guard Jalen Scott hit the shot of his young life at the Bruin’s Lair.
Down by one point, the Bruins inbounded and gave the ball to Scott, who drove the lane and made his bucket with 3.2 seconds left in regulation. A last-second heave from San Ramon Valley fell short and St. Pat’s edged the Wolves, 58-57, in the first round of the Northern California Divi
sion II State Playoffs. St. Pat’s moves onto the NorCal quarterfinals on Thursday where it will host league rival and No. 10 seed De Anza, a 65-56 upset winner over St. Francis.
Down by 14 points with 6:08 left in the fourth quarter, the Bruins (22-10) made an improbable comeback, outscoring the Wolves 21-6 the rest of the way.
Scott, who was hampered by injuries earlier in the postseason, scored 11 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter.
“He’s our senior and he’s been here since freshman year,” St. Pat’s head coach Derek Walker said. “He’s had some of those opportunities early in the season. Even if we were going out, I wanted to put the ball in his hands and trust that he’d make the right play.”
Scott acknowledged that his team was not playing like itself when San Ramon Valley (20-10) dominated the third quarter by a 2011 count.
“We were just playing lazy,” Scott said. “We weren’t sticking with our shooters. We were letting them get hot and we weren’t getting back.”
St. Pat’s junior forward Jalen Alexander had eight of his game-high 24 points in the final period and he added eight rebounds overall. Also 6-foot-11 center Dishon Jackson, who was held to seven points, had the biggest defensive play of the game with a block and subsequent rebound of Pat Deeley with 10.4 seconds left. Jackson’s block led directly to Scott’s heroics. It was one of five blocked shots for Jackson.
“That was huge,” Walker said. “Offensively, (Jackson) struggled tonight but in games like this, it can be one play and we forget everything else.”
Neither team gained much of an edge in the first
half. The Bruins led 8-2 out of the gate behind three straight baskets from Alexander, but a 3-pointer from Michael Santich started a 9-2 start to finish the quarter for the Wolves, who led 12-10.
San Ramon Valley hit the first two buckets of the second quarter and led 16-10 but St. Pat’s tied it 18-all on two foul shots from Tariq Johnson and eventually grabbed a 23-20 lead with 1:46 left after a steal and basket from Esai Contreras after a missed dunk from Jackson. But again, the Wolves answered as Santich nailed a 3 to tie the game 23-23 heading into the locker room.
Santich was the Bruins’ worst nightmare early in the third quarter as he nailed three straight long balls as the Wolves led 3225, forcing Walker to call timeout. Santich finished with 12 of his team-high 23 points in the third quarter.
“We had to touch. You can’t just run out and look at a shooter,” Walker said.
“As they say, ‘Hand down, man down.’ We had to touch him, make him put it on the deck a little bit. He was really strokin’ it there, just catch and shoot, he was really, really good.”
The Bruins did not hit a 3-pointer in the game themselves, something they duplicated in the North Coast Section semifinals against St. Joseph Notre Dame, a game they had to rally back from double-digits as well.
The Wolves’ hot shooting in the third quarter put them up 44-34 heading into the final 8 minutes.
It got even worse early in the fourth quarter as San Ramon Valley led by 14 points twice, the final time at 6:08 left when Jake Romero drained two free throws.
That was the moment the Bruins woke up as a series of steals, missed shots from San Ramon and clutch shots from the Bruins got the crowd back into the game.
Alexander finally made it a one-possession game at 57-55 with 1:04 left with two foul shots and Jackson hit one of two at the line with 45 seconds left to close the deficit to 57-56. The Wolves were held scoreless for the final 2 1/2 minutes.
Just like the section semifinals against St. Joe’s and the section championship against Branson, the Bruins found a way.
“(In the comeback) it was 100 percent desperation,” Walker said. “It was either you get that steal or your season is possibly over. Luckily for us, we made just enough to get it done.”
“He's had some of those opportunities early in the season. Even if we were going out, I wanted to put the ball in his hands and trust that he'd make the right play.”
— Derek Walker, St. Pat’s coach, on senior Jalen Scott.