ALBANY, CA – With four-and-a-half minutes to play in regulation in Saturday’s Tri-County Athletic League Championship game versus St. Patrick-St. Vincent, Salesian trailed by nine, moments after Jaden McClanahan picked up his fourth foul. But within two minutes, the Pride closed the gap to three, and Salesian ultimately pulled away in overtime for a 66-63 victory.
James Akinjo had 23 points, including a decisive lay-up with 25 seconds remaining in the extra period, and Jamario Bibb added 10 points and eight boards. The Bruins were led by BJ Standley, who scored all 21 of his points in the second half and overtime, and Marquel Johnson’s 17 points and 11 rebounds.
Before a full house at Albany High School, the two teams—which split their regular season contests, including an electric win by the Bruins on February 7th when Standley hit a game-winning three—each got off to a relatively slow start. St. Patrick-St. Vincent (21-6) led 19-11 midway through the second, but Salesian made a 7-1 run to close the half. In the third, Standley went to work and Johnson continued a hot hand. Salesian (24-4) fell behind by as much as 14, yet a pair of three-pointers by McClanahan kept them within striking distance, at 45-38 to end the quarter.
“It just seemed that the team that made the last run would win it,” Salesian coach Bill Mellis said. “I thought we were attacking the basket a little bit more and little bit better in the second half and overtime We just said in the second half we’re not going to keep shooting this poorly, keep sticking with the game plan.”
In the fourth, Bibb led a parade to the foul line for Salesian. He converted 5-of-6 attempts, and Salesian was 13-of-17 from the line overall in the second half, compared to the Bruins’ 5-for-10 mark. Bibb also had a momentum-gaining lay-up on a recipient of a beautiful pass from Ke’mare Wright following a McClanahan steal to make it 57-56. JoVon McClanahan’s pair from the charity stripe gave the Pride its first advantage with only 1:38 to go, and a tying free throw by Romeo Mays 36 seconds later proved to be the final basket in regulation, as each team committed a crucial turnover the rest of the way.
In overtime, Standley started things off with a three-point play, but the Bruins would get another field goal. Wright was involved in two key defensive plays in the final minute. He swatted away a Tavian Henderson attempt, and then converged with Akinjo on a double team near mid-court. Wright took control of the ball and fed it to Akinjo, who raced down court for the tie-breaking lay-up. On the next possession, the Bruins were called for a five-second closely guarded violation—the second such call on St. Patrick-St. Vincent late in the game—and a baseball pass to Wright and ensuing free throw helped clinch the victory. The Bruins could not get off a decent attempt, and Salesian and its fan base went into a wild celebration.
“They have guards that go by us, so sometimes we have to gamble a little bit,” Mellis said about the tie-breaking play. “We just hedged on the screen and kept the double-team and forced the turnover.”
Noting the chemistry between himself and Wright, Akinjo added, “We kind of figured we get (Standley) in a bad spot and force a steal and get a lay-up.”
Salesian won its second straight TCAL crown after losing to the Bruins in the 2015 semifinal. St. Patrick-St. Vincent also fell to the Pride in last year’s NCS playoffs. Coming into this game, Salesian was ranked first and St. Patrick-St. Vincent fourth by MaxPreps in the NCS.
