SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — As difficult as it can be to build a winning basketball time, sometimes the path to success is as simple as having a couple of guards play well.
Brandon Lum scored a game-high 21 points and Jackson Jung dished out five assists to lead the Stuart Hall Knights to their second state CIF Northern Regional title in program history, beating Priory 44-37 to advance to Friday’s state CIF Division V Championship.
“We’re just playing good ball and making the right plays,” said head coach Charley Johnson, the lone head coach in program history. “I’ve been saying all year, if we can click at the right time and get a few breaks, anything can happen.”
The Knights locked it down on defense, allowing just 13 points in the first half and never trailing after the second minute of the third quarter, and answered three key Panther buckets with 3-pointers of their own in the fourth before an enthusiastic crowd at Kezar Pavilion. Tayo Sobomehin scored a team-high 13 for fourth-seeded Priory (19-12), hitting a pair of threes from the top of the arc midway through the fourth quarter, but Sterling Luddington-Simmons and Lum each answered with threes at the other end to make it 34-30.
“Sterling’s three was huge. He caught it and shot it with no fear. I think that was the play of the game,” Johnson said. “I’m genuinely happy for him because of how much work he does.”
Luddington-Simmons’ 3-pointer was his only basket of the night, but he ran a crisp offense down the stretch after a rough early start and stayed in the game despite picking up his fourth foul midway through the third. Sophomore Tim Rayford had a pair of assists in the fourth quarter, first on Mav Malabey’s layup that gave Stuart Hall (21-12) a 28-24 lead and then on Luddington-Simmons’ three. Jung then found Lum, and after Rostand Olama Abanda scored on an inbound play to get the Panthers back within two, Luddington-Simmons found an open Jake Goodman, who set himself and knocked down his lone shot of the night to put the third-seeded Knights up 37-32.
“We just stick with it, run our offense and get a bucket,” Luddington-Simmons said of the offense, which found most of its success at the end of the shot clock.
Lum made five of six free throws in the final 2:13 and Rayford knocked down two from the line as well to seal the win. While the Knights hit nine of their 10 foul shots, Priory made just six of 15.
“We missed bunnies and we missed free throws,” Panthers head coach David Moseley said. “We went inside to our advantage, and we weren’t able to finish.”
Aside from Sobomehin’s hot stretch, it was tough sledding offensively for the visitors, and unlike last season, when senior point guard Zach Zafran was able to take pressure off of Sobomehin, there was no other guard that could distract Stuart Hall’s defense. Combine that with Priory’s inability to convert at the free throw line, and the Knights were able to get physical inside with minimal consequences.
“We’ve started to realize that defense wins games,” Lum said. “Most of the teams we’re playing average upwards of 56 points, and if we keep them under 56, it’s pretty hard to stop us.”
True to Lum’s word, the Panthers entered the night averaging 55.5 and came nowhere near the mark. Lum outscored them by himself in the first quarter, 6-3, and had his team’s first eight before a Rayford floater and Malabey lay-in. Stuart Hall led 14-13 at the half and trailed just twice all game, 2-0 when Walker Rust scored the game’s opening basket and 15-14 when Rust scored off an Olama Abanda stretch pass early in the third.
The Cameroonian tandem of Olama Abanda, a 6-foot-4 junior, and 6-foot-9 sophomore Steve Emeneke combined for 13 points and 11 rebounds, but Malabey’s eight points and Goodman’s three helped cancel out most of their contributions.
“Coach trusted me throughout the process to keep my composure, and I was able to get it done at the end,” Malabey said.
Malabey, a senior forward who’s evolved over the course of the season from a clumsy player in the post to a confident finisher, scored on back-to-back possessions off feeds from Jung and Lum to give his team an 18-15 lead, one they’d never relinquish.
“The guards dropping it off to me, great finds,” he said. “In the first half, I missed a wide-open layup, but I told my teammates at halftime I would make all of those.”
Lum’s 3-pointer at the end of the shot clock put the Knights up eight, and they led 26-20 after Jung’s lone bucket of the night, a 3-pointer from the wing. Olama Abanda and Emeneke each scored off Clint Smith assists to cut the advantage to two heading into the final quarter, but Stuart Hall never gave up the lead.
“We’ve been more aggressive, and that’s the kids. They’ve taught me something this year,” Johnson said. “I was way too tentative of a coach. I was playing certain teams too cute, and my guys talked me into being more aggressive at both ends.”
That aggression, combined with a steely-eyed focus resulting in good looks at the end of the shot clock, has the Knights heading to their second state championship appearance in program history. They reached the final in Division IV in 2018 but fell 74-62 to View Park. Stuart Hall will face Chaffey at noon on Friday at Golden 1 Center, with much of the school’s student body expected to get the day off classes to support their team after showing such passionate support at Kezar on Tuesday night.
