SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — The Riordan Crusaders had been subject to vocal criticism over the past few years.
King-Njhsanni Wilhite was labeled a ballhog and a selfish teammate. Head coach Joey Curtin was constantly bashed by onlookers. Riordan couldn’t win big games.
All of those narratives were smashed to pieces on Friday night as the Crusaders won their first CCS Open Division Championship in school history, 68-51 over two-time defending champion Mitty.
“We’re not really worried about the outside noise, but at the same time, we still proved people wrong,” said Wilhite, who scored a game-high 29 points.
Big performances in championship games are nothing new for Wilhite, who scored 35 in an overtime loss to the Monarchs in 2021 and 27 as a freshman for St. Ignatius in 2020. At Kaiser Permanente Arena, the home of the NBA G-League’s Santa Cruz Warriors, he sank four 3-pointers in the first quarter, then scored another 11 on free throws in the second half on a night where he went 13-of-17 at the line, making his first 10 attempts before showing signs of fatigue in the final minutes.
Facing a top-seeded Mitty team that had not only won the prior two CCS Open Division titles but had swept them in the regular season, the Crusaders ensured the Monarchs would never launch a comeback like they had done so many times before. Riordan (20-8) never trailed outside of the opening five minutes, using a 13-2 run in the final minutes of the first quarter to pull ahead and never wavering. A 7-0 run late in the first half gave the Crusaders their first double-digit lead, and they never gave in when the Monarchs looked like they were ready to make a push.
No sequence better exemplified third-seeded Riordan’s relentlessness on Friday night than one from Achilles Woodson in the third quarter. Getting his first reps of the game after sitting for the entire first half, Woodson got crossed up by Mitty’s Aidan Burke, who drove for a layup to cut the lead to 36-29. How did Woodson respond? He sank a 3-pointer at the other end on the very next possession.
“It’s just fighting through adversity, going to the next play,” Woodson said. “We’re called the Crusaders for a reason. We’re warriors, we’re fighters.”
Woodson, whose 3-pointer at the buzzer defeated Sacred Heart Cathedral in Riordan’s regular season finale, hit another three at the buzzer on Friday night, this time closing the third quarter with a shot from the corner to give his team a 50-38 advantage.
“The kid doesn’t change,” Curtin said of Woodson’s mentality. “He gets his ankles broke, doesn’t matter.”
Woodson’s role was part of the typical recipe for a Riordan victory. Wilhite and Marcellus Edwards, who scored 10 points, were regular contributors, and they were aided by an assortment of teammates. Christian Wise was the unexpected hero in Wednesday’s win at Sacred Heart Prep, and on Friday night, the honor went to Woodson and freshman Jasir Rencher.
Rencher didn’t start but played over 20 minutes, finishing with seven points, seven rebounds and three blocks, all while guarding 6-foot-7 Derek Sangster.
“They just want me guarding the best player cause they know I can stop him,” Rencher said. “Last game, Sangster had zero points on me, so they tried it again and he had zero again on me.”
Rencher recorded his first two blocks in the final two minutes of the first quarter, then hit an open three off an Edwards assist to finish the 13-2 run and put his team up 15-7. His third block led to a transition layup to give Riordan a 44-34 lead in the third, and his pair of free throws with 48.2 seconds remaining allowed Curtin to sub him out to a standing ovation with a 15-point lead. The 17-point margin marked the largest in any Open Division Championship Game; the prior nine had all been decided by no more than eight points, with two needing overtime.
All of this came against a Mitty team that had swept the Crusaders in the regular season, won the WCAL and lost just four games all year. The Monarchs’ only larger defeat on the season came in December against Brophy Prep, the second-ranked team in all of Arizona.
“The force that Riordan played with and the way they hit big shots, credit to those guys,” Monarchs head coach Tim Kennedy said. “They came out with a lot more fire and a lot more force than we did. Having a bad game on a big night is tough to swallow.”
Losing Isaiah Cabebe to a head injury with 6:53 remaining in the second quarter certainly did Mitty (24-4) no favors. After his hard fall, the Monarchs always seemed a step out of sync, whether it was a misfired pass, awkward spacing or slower than usual ball movement.
“He’s the head of our offense, so we had to maneuver some different guys in different positions,” Kennedy added.
Cabebe scored 19 in Wednesday’s win over St. Ignatius, and he’s also played some of his best games against the Crusaders, knocking down the go-ahead 3-pointer in a Feb. 9 win that cemented the Monarchs’ league championship. His absence meant Riordan was able to focus even more on Burke and Sangster, and it further reduced a Mitty lineup that had already seen its depth depleted. At full strength, the Monarchs typically employ a nine-man rotation, and that unit had been taken down to seven with hand injuries to Gavin Ripp and Nick Tjaden earlier in the month. Ripp did appear for two minutes in the second quarter of Friday’s championship game with a heavily bandaged hand, his first action since January.
What Mitty lacked in depth was a stark contrast to Riordan’s strength. Curtin rotated nine players in the first half and added a tenth with Woodson in the third quarter. The only member of the roster not to see significant time was Antonio Pusateri, and even he delivered a flashy drive to the basket for the final points of the game after a late insertion. The constant supply of fresh legs helped the Crusaders hold a double-digit advantage for the entirety of the fourth quarter, and they stayed sharp on defense even as they missed six of 10 free throws over a three-minute span before making seven of their final eight to close the game.
The postgame celebrations coincided with Riordan’s ascension to the top spot in the Central Coast Section for the first time since the Open Division’s creation, and it’s the crowning achievement on a steady rise under Curtin, who won a CCS Division III title as a player in 2001.
“It means so much. When I took over the program five years ago, we were 1-13 the year before in WCAL,” Curtin said. “To win a CCS championship as a player and to get us to the mountaintop this year, it’s hard to describe.”
In that 58-37 win over Sacred Heart Cathedral, Curtin scored four points. Marquise Kately, who went on to play at Cal and Morgan State, scored 23 as the Crusaders led 27-7 at halftime. While Kately wasn’t in attendance Friday night, some of Curtin’s friends from the Class of 2001 did make the trip to Santa Cruz, part of a crowd bringing together generations of Riordan families.
Also present was Je’Lani Clark, who started at Riordan for four years. His 2019-20 senior season was tragically cut short by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and he joined the coaching staff midway through the current season after returning to the Bay Area.
“He’s almost like my parrot,” Curtin said. “I’m coaching and then I hear him say exactly what I told him for three years.”
Clark’s presence rounds out a youthful and energetic coaching staff that was every bit as involved with the postgame celebrations as the players were. When Curtin returned to the locker room after completing a bevy of interviews, it was Clark who unloaded a full Gatorade container on his former coach.
“It’s nice to see him out here and caring about these kids,” Curtin said. “He can relate to them.”
Clark won a CCS Division III title as a sophomore, but Riordan lost to Bellarmine in the semifinals of his junior season and fell to St. Francis in the quarterfinals of his senior year, games that started the cycle of criticism surrounding Curtin and the entire program.
“I’ve got to get my thoughts together,” Curtin joked when asked if he had any response to the naysayers.
Though Wilhite didn’t score from the floor in the final two quarters, his 18 points in the first half nearly matched Mitty’s entire team. The Monarchs went into the break trailing 32-23 after a pair of free throws from Burke, who scored 15. Sophomore Tyler Jones also scored 15, while Sangster finished with eight points and eight rebounds. Edwards scored 10 for Riordan, while sophomore Quinton Bundage made five of his six free throws in the final 1:25 and finished with nine.
