Trevor Dunbar (with ball) and his teammates simply couldn't find the basket when it mattered most on Tuesday night | Jack Sheedy/Prep2Prep |
SAN FRANCISCO - Sometimes a win or loss is not determined by height, athleticism, or a roster, but by determination, grit, and tenacity. This was the case during Round 1 of the WCAL playoffs on Tuesday night, as the favored St. Ignatius Wildcats were continually out-hustled throughout the game, losing to the St. Francis Lancers 63-58.
“I just feel like we didn’t want it that badly,” St. Ignatius point guard Trevor Dunbar said. “Even when we were down, we just didn’t have any sense of urgency. They kept fighting for those offensive rebounds - that’s what killed us. They kept getting second-chance buckets all night.”
Dunbar, the Wildcats’ leading scorer, finished with a game-high 24 points and seven assists, but shot only 7-of-19 for the game, 4-of-13 in the second half. Granted, many of those attempts came in desperation minutes, but his second-half field goal percentage reflects a key reason why SI (19-6) simply couldn’t pull out the victory: its lack of ability to hit perimeter shots.
As a team, St. Ignatius shot 44 percent, but just 4-of-14 from behind the 3-point line in the third and fourth quarters. Those missed shots seemed to be almost always grabbed by St. Francis defenders, which made extending possessions extremely tough for the Wildcats.
“We had great effort on the boards from our guys tonight,” Lancer head coach Mike Motil said. “We knew it would take that to win.”
Point guard Curtis Witt paced St. Francis with 15 points, but to not mention guard Chris Lewis would be a disservice. Going into the fourth quarter, SI led by three, but Lewis’ six points in the quarter off of three clutch buckets kept the Lancers in the game, even when they were down 52-48 with just over five minutes remaining.
“That’s one of our senior leaders,” Motil said when asked about Lewis. “He just kept plugging away, and made a huge jump shot in the paint that I think got us even. He has to keep attacking, and our job of rebounding tonight allowed us to push the basketball and get fastbreak buckets, which he capitalized on.
Lewis finished with eight points, all in the second half, on 4-of-6 shooting.
St. Ignatius had defeated St. Francis handily in their two meetings prior to this one, but all the Lancers needed was one strong performance, and it came at an opportune time in the season.
As a team prominently featuring at least three sophomores, the Lancers have struggled with turnovers throughout the season, but found that issue to be non-existent on Tuesday night.
“We played here on Saturday night (and) only had four turnovers in the first half,” Motil said. “We turned around in the second half and gave the ball away in an amount that was up in the ‘teens. Taking care of the ball was a focus coming into tonight if we wanted to play with them, and we did a great job of that.”
For the Wildcats, this loss likely bumps them down from a CCS Open Division berth to a high seed in the Division II bracket, but the Lancers don’t have CCS playoffs on their mind just yet.
The 6-seed travels to play No. 1 seed Archbishop Mitty on Friday night in San Jose, hoping to continue their success, and and ultimately make it to the WCAL finals on Saturday night at Foothill College.
To visit GameCenter for this game, please click
here
