SAN FRANCISCO — Jesuit schools St. Ignatius and Loyola both opened SI’s Leo LaRocca Sand Dune Classic with wins on Thursday, with the Cubs beating Menlo-Atherton 60-43 behind a big second half and the tournament hosts beating Bella Vista 70-34, outscoring the Broncos 49-13 after the opening sequences of the second quarter.
Leading 29-24 at halftime, Loyola (12-3) got seven points from Andre Parris and six from Colby Brooks in the third to take control, then pulled away in the fourth as Menlo-Atherton (4-3) struggled to keep up. JD Carson led the Bears with 13 while Justin Anderson and Nick Tripaldi each scored eight. Parris’ 3-pointer gave the Cubs their first double-digit lead at 34-24, and back-to-back putbacks by Brooks and Parris in the fourth would stretch the lead to 17. A Uri Ferguson lay-in created the largest margin of the day at 53-34 before the Bears trimmed it to 15 on a Tripaldi 3-pointer, but they would get no closer.
As for the host Wildcats, they led just 18-15 after a quarter and were tied at 21 in the second after a Brandon Farren 3-pointer, but they’d close the half on a 15-2 run with a pair of Malcolm McCray-Hill dunks. Ethan Jew, who matched McCray-Hill with 12 points, scored seven in the third to help St. Ignatius (4-4) pull away.
“I’m getting more minutes and I’m getting more opportunities because I’m able to set a lot of screens on the perimeter and after that I roll or dive,” said Jew, who saw sporadic minutes as a sophomore but has been a regular fixture on the court as a junior, getting the start on Thursday night. “I’m getting the ball underneath and I’m able to score.”
Freshman point guard King-Jhsanni Wilhite led the Wildcats with 15, Daniel Webster added 10 and sophomore GC Toledo Rivera finished with eight. Nick Lira and Gabriel Cederborg each scored seven for Bella Vista (3-10).
Monte Vista 55, Mission 43
Anthony Santa Maria had 19 points and seven rebounds, Jason Lai scored 18 and Evan Dunphy scored eight as Monte Vista (5-4) held off a scrappy Bears team in their opening game of the tournament.
Carlmont 46, Fremont-Oakland 31
Timothy Netane scored nine while both Daniel Awad and Joe Seaman added eight as Carlmont (5-3) slogged out a win over the Tigers.
