ALAMEDA, CA – Defending CIF Division V state champion and CIF North Coast Section Division IV top-seed St. Joseph Notre Dame (28-1) bolted out to a 14-2 lead and never looked back en route to a 56-32 Saturday night quarterfinal home victory over eighth-seeded Healdsburg.
The Cal-Hi Sports No. 20 and Prep2Prep NCS top-ranked Pilots have now won 26 straight games since a 72-60 loss to perennial CIF Sac-Joaquin Section power Modesto Christian-Modesto in early December.
Whitman College-bound senior guard Darne Duckett delighted the packed house with some nifty moves to lead St. Joseph Notre Dame with 14 points plus six steals. Fellow junior and 6-3 forward Cameron Ba nailed three 3-pointers and finished with 11 points. Senior 6-3 star guard Jade’ Smith had a Draymond Green like game after finishing with nine points, 11 rebounds, 10 steals and six assists. Freshman 6-2 power forward Isiah Mellor showed some promise after finishing with eight points and six rebounds.
“Overall the positive thing about this game was you saw some guys do some good things, including the freshman Mellor, and we need those kinds of efforts,” said St. Joseph Notre Dame Coach Don Lippi.
The visiting Greyhounds showed some fight after falling behind big early with a 10-2 run that cut the lead to 16-12 early in the second quarter, but the Pilots closed the half on an 8-2 run of their own and the 24-14 lead they had after two quarters pretty much sealed the deal in a game that saw the lead bulge to 28-points before the benches decided the final margin.
Healdsburg (19-8) got 14 points from Trey Chapman and Landon Courtman added 11 points.
St. Joseph Notre Dame moves on to face No. 5 seed Stuart Hall-San Francisco in the semifinals on Wednesday at home. The Knights were a somewhat surprising 65-48 winner over cross-town University.
Earlier this season the Pilots were 74-45 winner over the Knights so it seen Lippi and his boys are looking like they will play for a 17th CIFNCS title but first in Division IV since 2004. St. Joseph Notre Dame won two titles in the old 3A Division, six in Division I, and they have won six Division V titles, all in the past eight years.
“We’ve had really good practices and a great season and won our league,” reflected Lippi. “I think we’re ready for next week and are in a good position to win a D4 title.”
The win was also No. 828 in the illustrious coaching career of Lippi, and according to the Cal-Hi Sports record lists moves him within one victory of Lou Cvijanovich (829 victories at Santa Clara-Oxnard from 1959-199) for the No. 6 spot all time. Earlier this season Lippi passed Elio “Abe” Abrami (802 wins at Emery from 1955-1993) for the No. 2 spot all time in the CIFNCS behind Mike Phelps who won 843 games from 1971 to 2003 at the old St. Joseph and Bishop O’Dowd combined.
