A young St. Joseph Notre Dame team was even younger than usual on Saturday, but the baby-faced Pilot lineup left no doubt that the future of the program was in good hands.
With Cameron Ba, the lone senior on the roster, out with a concussion, the Pilots still managed to topple previously unbeaten Sacred Heart Cathedral, 63-58.
Adam Campos scored 22 points as St. Joseph Notre Dame (3-3) opened up a 15-point lead in the third quarter and held on late despite a heroic performance from SHC’s Gary Hudson in a defining victory for a young SJND team.
Campos scored nine of his points in the second quarter and Kobe Keiner added a pair of corner threes as SJND outscored the Fightin’ Irish 23-15 in the period to take a nine-point halftime lead.
From there, Tyler Woods started to make his presence felt. The junior guard’s and-1 stretched the lead to 46-31 with 2:20 left in the third, and his seeing-eye pass to Campos under the hoop restored a 12-point lead after a Hudson 3-pointer cut it to 48-38.
Hudson, who led all scorers with 26 points, hit a deep three to cut the score to 59-50, sparking an 8-0 run that got Sacred Heart Cathedral (6-1) back within striking distance. Emmett Neal Jr. followed with a three-point play and then fed Amin Oglesby underneath to cut the deficit to 59-55, but Campos’ putback, arguably the most important play of the game, put the Pilots back up by six with 1:45 left. Bryce Monroe, who scored 18 points on the evening, answered with an and-1 to make it a three-point game, and Campos fouled out on an offensive foul with 1:16 to go, leaving the door open for the Fightin’ Irish, but the SJND defense got the ensuing stop and, with Sacred Heart Cathedral choosing not to send the Pilots to the free-throw line, where they had excelled all day, Jason Ricketts sealed the game with a mid-range baseline jumper with 25 seconds remaining.
St. Joseph Notre Dame will try to take that momentum into the Modesto Christian Holiday Hoop Classic, while Sacred Heart Cathedral will attempt to rebound from the loss with a coastside excursion as the Fightin’ Irish head to Watsonville for Monte Vista Christian’s Don and Martha Price Christmas Classic. Both of those tournaments begin on the 27th.
Warriors pull away late
One Jay-Allen Tovar dunk after another made host Valley Christian’s slow start a distant memory as the Warriors improved to 8-0 by winning the nightcap over Palma, 62-46.
Valley Christian finished the first half on an 16-4 run to erase an early eight-point deficit and soared from there. Tovar finished the night with 20 points, half of which came on dunks.
A pair of Justin Kidd 3-pointers highlighted the run, which also featured Tovar’s second of his five dunks, which came on an alley-oop off the backboard from Jaylon Bryant to tie the game at 19. Kidd’s second 3-pointer put Valley Christian (8-0) ahead 24-21, and 6’7 senior Cameron Fini finished the half with a mid-range jumper to give the Warriors a five-point advantage at the break.
The lead reached ten in the third quarter when Tovar finished an alley-oop off a behind-the-back pass from Kidd, and Fini fed the 6’9 junior underneath for yet another slam to make it a 44-32 game. The lead ballooned all the way to 18 on Tovar’s fifth and final dunk of the evening, a menacing one-handed rip.
Palma (5-3) got nine points from Peyton Seelye and seven from 5’4 sophomore A.J. Suniga, who held his own despite facing players more than a foot taller. The Chieftains will return to action on the 28th at St. Francis’ Joe Schram Invitational, where they’ll open the tournament against Santa Cruz in a game that could have serious implications in Division IV playoff seeding.
Valley Christian will look to maintain its perfect record on Wednesday against Pinole Valley.
While the final two games of the 6th Hunt Memorial Classic drew the most attention, there was no shortage of drama in the first three. Pinole Valley beat Gunderson in the opener 51-42, Evergreen Valley scraped past Albany in overtime, 47-46, and Kennedy (Richmond) held off Brookside Christian 57-53 after leading by 18 at the half.
Kennedy got 11 points from Mike Tillis, who missed the second of two free throws with three seconds remaining and a two-point lead but got his own rebound to effectively seal the game. Brookside Christian (2-5) got 16 points, including eight in the fourth quarter, from Van Cuthbertson Jr. and 10 from sophomore guard Christopher Tsamas. Jason Mitchell added 12 for the Knights and Akil Green cut the lead to 54-53 with 5.9 seconds left on a 3-pointer. Kennedy, which is off to a 6-3 start under first-year head coach Viktoriia Kotilevskaia, an SFSU alum and a native of Russia, got nine points from Brian Davis and a crucial mid-range jumper from Iuni Mauga with four minutes remaining for his only points of the game, a basket which snapped a five-minute scoring drought and restored an eight-point lead for the Eagles.
