ETHAN KASSEL
Prep2Prep Senior Editor

February 23, 2022

ATHERTON, Calif. — Considering how good the Sacred Heart Prep Gators looked on Monday night after falling behind by 19, it would have been fair to think they’ve been rallying from deficits all year.

In reality, the inspired effort that led to a 69-55 win over St. Francis in CCS Open Division pool play was unprecedented. The Gators had only faced three double-digit deficits all year, and hadn’t successfully rallied from once since their very first game on Dec. 2.

“It was on us,” Emmer Nichols said. “We came into this game having beaten them last time, expecting to walk through them.”

Second-seeded Sacred Heart Prep beat the Lancers by 13 in December and had only improved since then, but throughout the first half of Monday’s affair, sixth-seeded St. Francis (15-11) looked unstoppable. The Lancers jumped out to a 13-4 lead barely three minutes in, forcing SHP head coach Tony Martinelli to call an early timeout, and extended that lead all the way to 25-6 on a John Frazier putback.

The lead sat at 31-12 when Isaiah Kerr scored in transition, and even when the Gators seemed to have a semblance of momentum after a Kevin Carney offensive rebound of a missed free throw set up an RJ Stephens layup, Vince Barringer’s 3-pointer at the other end made it 34-16.

After a quick 7-0 Gator run, Barringer hit the second of his four 3-pointers to restore a 14-point advantage, and the Lancers looked to be in complete control with a 41-27 halftime lead, even after Nichols hit a three to answer four Brylan Lundy free throws. Barringer connected from three again to open the third, a possible sign that the second half was going to be an extension of the first, but Sacred Heart Prep (23-3) had other plans.

The Gators responded to Barringer’s third 3-pointer with a 14-0 run. A sequence of five straight offensive rebounds led to a Carney 3-pointer that cut the lead to 12 and awoke the crowd, Nichols scored on back-to-back putbacks and JP Kerrigan delivered a clutch and-1, grabbing the rebound and scoring through contact after Kerr flew in to block a Nichols dunk attempt.

“The players adjusted to the speed and tempo of the game,” Martinelli said. “It was all energy and effort.”

Kerr, who finished with 10 points, scored on a floater in the lane to stop the run, but Nichols split a pair of free throws and scored on another putback before Aidan Braccia tied the game at 46 off one of Jake York’s three assists. Kerr got called for both a common foul and a technical foul with 28 seconds left in the third quarter when he made a comment directed at his bench within earshot of the referees, and Braccia made three of four free throws in the ensuing sequence.

SHP led for the entirety of the fourth quarter, getting a pair of clutch threes from York, who finished with nine points off the bench. He connected with 6:35 remaining to make it 52-46, Carney hit from the volleyball lines to answer a Tim Netane turnaround shot and York connected from downtown again to make it a 60-50 game with four minutes left. Braccia, who finished with 17 points, eight rebounds and four assists, buried the dagger at the end of the shot clock with 1:17 remaining, putting his team up 11. He made eight of 10 free throws, including five of six in the final 2:31.

“We’re just really excited to keep it going,” said Braccia, whose Gators will host third-seeded Riordan on Wednesday in what’ll effectively serve as a semifinal game. “We owe a lot to these fans and having it get loud after every bucket we make.”

Nichols finished with 16 points, nine rebounds and three assists, while Carney scored 10. Netane led the Lancers with 15, including nine in the first quarter, while Barringer finished with 13.

“They hit the boards a lot harder than us in the second half,” St. Francis head coach Mike Motil said. “A lot of our offense in the first quarter was us getting stops and running it back at them, and without rebounds, we couldn’t do that.”

The Lancers outrebounded SHP 25-18 in the first half, but the Gators held a staggering 19-3 edge in the third quarter and a 48-39 advantage on the glass for the game. 6-foot-7 junior center Sam Norris had seven boards, while Carney and Kerrigan had six apiece. The Sacred Heart Prep bench outscored the St. Francis reserves 22-6, with York contributing nine and Stephens scoring all of his six in the second quarter.

“They came in and brought energy at the end of the second quarter and made us believe that we were still in the game,” Nichols said.

No. 1 Mitty 57, No. 5 Serra 42

Considering that Serra was the only team to beat the Mitty Monarchs in WCAL play, and considering that the Padres trailed by just three in the final minutes when the teams met for a second time, even without Garret Keyhani, it would have been fair to predict that the Padres would upend the Monarchs on Monday night and throw Pool A in the CCS Open Division into chaos.

The Monarchs, resoundingly, said no.

Mitty (22-4) looked every bit the part of a top seed, jumping out to a 10-0 lead three minutes in, taking a 36-20 advantage into halftime and leading by as much as 20 before fending off a late Serra push for a 57-42 victory.

The win means Wednesday’s Pool A finale between the Monarchs and St. Ignatius, set for 7:30 p.m. at Mitty, will effectively serve as a CCS Open Division semifinal.

Aidan Burke, the favorite to win WCAL Player of the Year, was held to just six points, though he did hit arguably the biggest shot of the night. Serra (15-10) had scored the first six points of the fourth quarter to cut the deficit to 43-31 when Burke hit a corner three off an Isaiah Cabebe assist to restore control.

Derek Sangster scored a team-high 16 points, knocking down a trio of 3-pointers, and Jaiden Paran scored 13, his highest total since December. Cabebe finished with 12 points and four assists. Keyhani, once again playing with a heavily bandaged left hand, scored 16 points and grabbed seven rebounds for the Padres, while Brady Smith issued a game-high six assists.

No. 3 Riordan 75, No. 7 Bellarmine 33

Riordan handed the Bellarmine Bells a historic beatdown, outscoring them 44-16 across the middle two quarters to pull away. The win marked the Crusaders’ fifth consecutive head-to-head win over the seventh-seeded Bells.

King-Njhsanni Wilhite scored a game-high 20 for Riordan (18-8), Brendan Passanisi scored all nine of his points in the first half and Isiah Chala scored eight of his nine after the break, knocking down a pair of threes. Freshman Jasir Rencher added eight, while Nate Teresi led Bellarmine (11-14) with six points.

No. 4 St. Ignatius 68, No. 8 Valley Christian 49

GC Toledo Rivera broke out of his weeks-long scoring slump, knocking down six 3-pointers and scoring a game-high 24 points as the St. Ignatius Wildcats beat Valley Christian for the third time this season, 68-49.

Fourth-seeded St. Ignatius (20-6) led by just six before Alex Rike’s steal set up a Ryan Conroy layup to close the first half, and the Wildcats put up 20 in the third quarter to pull away. Rory Kenneally finished with 11 points and Sean Quanico added eight. Pasha Goodarzi led Valley Christian (8-18) with 10 points, all in the first half. The Warriors, who played their second straight game without Marcus Washington (ankle), also got nine points from Tzahari Trevino and eight from Kenny Harper.