SAN FRANCISCO — With power foward DeShawn Lynch opening up the lane, the Folsom Bulldogs used a tremendously balanced display of scoring to top the host Riordan Crusaders 68-64 on Tuesday night in the first round of the CIF Division I Tournament.
Seven players scored at least seven points for the ninth-seeded Bulldogs, an offense that Lynch orchestrated through his size.
“I just had to get myself going,” he said. “First half, I was struggling. It was a different caliber of physicality, and I had to use more strength.”
A defensive lineman on Folsom’s state championship football team, Lynch had eight of his 12 points and 11 of his game-high 15 rebounds after the break. He scored just one point in the 11-2 third quarter run that changed the game, but it was his presence that created opportunities for Tiler Fears, freshman point guard Malik Rose, Cameron Wall, Tiler Fears and Jalen Scott.
“DeShawn demands a lot of attention and we just drove by them a lot,” head coach Mike Wall said.
Riordan (18-9) wouldn’t go away, even after the deficit grew to 10 early in the fourth quarter on a 6-0 run with a pair of putbacks by Lynch. The hosts would respond by cutting the deficit to five with an 8-3 run, but Fears hit a huge 3-pointer from the top of the arc to put the Bulldogs up 58-50.
“If I come off the bench strong, it’s going to propel the whole team forward and help us win,” said Fears, who scored 12 in a reserve role.
A 3-pointer from Bryce Monroe, who scored a game-high 25 points, got the Crusaders back within five, but a lack of timeouts would hinder eighth-seeded Riordan. Monroe had been trapped on the baseline to force the Crusaders to burn their fourth timeout with 4:52 left, and they had to call their last with 43.3 left after a 3-pointer by Chime Ugbaja. Rose got open in the press break for a layup out of the timeout to put Folsom (26-6) up 65-59, and though Ugbaja would hit another three off an offensive rebound, the Bulldogs were able to stall before inbounding. Jerrald Cummings would finally be fouled with 20 seconds left, splitting a pair of free throws to put his team up four, and though Monroe would rush right back down to score again, Folsom was able to run the clock down, with Cummings finally heading to the line to sink two game-sealing free throws with 2.1 seconds left.
“We can’t try to put it together all at the end of a game,” said Ugbaja, who scored 11 points. “We have to put all our effort from beginning to end, not just flip it on in the second half.”
Junior guard Je’Lani Clark, a three-year starter, scored 13 for a team that had entered the year with high expectations in the WCAL, finishing second and reaching the CCS Open Division Semifinals.
“A lot of people might say we choked, but this program’s going up and up and up,” he said. “From one league win to four to 10, I’ve been here the whole time.”
The Crusaders were largely undone by foul trouble, with Clark picking up two early and De’Sean Johnson, their one hope of stopping Lynch, picking up his fourth with 6:55 left and fouling out with 3:26 remaining. It was no coincidence that Folsom opened up a 10-point lead after Johnson picked up his fourth.
“We were really relying on De’Sean,” head coach Joey Curtin said. “He’s our best matchup for Lynch, and when he was out, they were able to take advantage.”
Wall, the coach’s son, scored nine for the Bulldogs, including a 3-pointer at the buzzer to send his team into the half up 27-26.
“I knew we had momentum at that point and were about to win the game,” Lynch said.
Rose finished with 10, Cumings scored seven and Dylan Davis added seven, all in the second half. Scott finished with eight for a Folsom team that committed just eight turnovers to Riordan’s 14.
“The turnovers that we had led to buckets,” Curtin said. “They were live ball turnovers, and a team that plays in transition just can’t have those in a close game.”
