SANTA CLARA — Sacred Heart Cathedral figuratively rebounded from a 3-11 run through the WCAL by reaching the CCS Open Division championship game, and on Friday night, they won it by rebounding literally.
With 17 offensive rebounds and 11 second chance points, the eighth-seeded Fightin' Irish finished their improbable run with a 50-48 win over Bellarmine, winning their first Open Division title in program history and becoming the first team lower than a three-seed to win the championship.
Oscar Cheng was one of the biggest reasons Sacred Heart Cathedral (13-14) completed the run, taking control of the game in the post rather than waiting for plays to come to him.
“I was just looking to be aggressive and come through for my team,” the 6-foot-8 junior said.
Cheng led SHC with 14 points and had nine rebounds, all on the offensive glass, to lead his team to victory against a Bellarmine side that typically dominates the paint and controls the interior.
The last of Cheng’s offensive rebounds set up the go-ahead basket, a Kori McCoy 3-pointer with 1:12 remaining to put SHC ahead 48-45.
While McCoy’s shot gave the Irish the lead for good, it was far from the last big moment in a seesaw fourth quarter. Quinn Denker and Kiran Kruse both missed 3-pointers that would have tied it back up in the final minute, and the Irish managed to break Bellarmine’s press for a Cheng layup to go up by five. Denker came back down and hit a three for the last of his game-high 23 points, and the third-seeded Bells would take their final timeout with 17.1 seconds left.
With three fouls to give, Bellarmine (20-7) went all-out and nearly got the desired turnover on multiple occasions. SHC point guard Cedric Reed Jr. was trapped in the corner but was granted timeout despite the Bells’ bench pleading as he appeared to travel and step out-of-bounds. McCoy was then fouled just before uncorking an errant pass, and the Irish then became the ones to get the short end of the stick as a late whistle for the sixth foul prevented Elijah Flowers from completing a game-sealing layup. The seventh foul finally came with 4.5 seconds left, and though McCoy missed the free throw, freshman Ray John Jackson was able to poke the ball out of Josh Wolf-Bloom’s hands and back to McCoy, who was fouled again with two seconds remaining. Again, he missed, but Flowers was able to knock the ball away as time ran out to finish an unprecedented run.
“We were in survival mode,” head coach Sean MacKay said of the finish. “We were out of timeouts, went with five guards and make sure guys who shoot free throws can get the ball.”
The scrappy plays by Jackson and Flowers to finish the night were fitting, as it was that sort of play that got the Irish there in the first place. As they’ve surged through February, Flowers has been a major part of their success, sacrificing himself offensively to defend the opponent’s best player on a nightly basis. He scored just two points but held Kruse, who finished second in WCAL MVP voting, to a season-low three.
“I wasn’t worried about scoring or any of that,” Flowers said. “My assignment was to shut him down, and that’s what I wanted to do for the whole game. Everybody on the team can score, so my job is to go out there and play great defense, grab rebounds and do all the scrappy stuff.”
Flowers finished the night with four assists, three rebounds, two steals and a block. Oisin McCormack led all players with 11 rebounds (four offensive), while Reed Jr. had 10 points on the night.
“We just preach the 50-50 balls and getting physical,” MacKay said. “We’re not a pretty team, we don’t shoot well, but guys just compete and battle.”
MacKay’s team had battled to a 38-33 lead on a Cheng with 2:30 left in the third when the Bells made their biggest charge to set up the tight finish. Denker scored the final five points of the quarter and Ridley Ruth opened the fourth with a three to put Bellarmine up 41-38.
Ruth started and scored seven points in 27 minutes, while Wolf-Bloom, a JV callup who saw his first varsity action in Wednesday’s semifinal win over Riordan, had two points and five rebounds in 10 minutes. Constantijn Cole, Bellarmine’s usual starting center, returned from injury but was limited to six minutes off the bench, and sophomore Ryan Kiachian, who would have taken his place, remained out with an ankle injury, though the Bells weren’t using that as an excuse.
“We play to win,” Ruth said.
They certainly had their chances to do so. A McCormack drive through the lane and Jackson baseline jumper put SHC back ahead early in the fourth, but Kruse slashed through the lane and took a pass from Wolf-Bloom for his only points of the night to put Bellarmine back in front with six minutes left. The Bells would hold SHC scoreless over the next three minutes and extend the lead to three when Ian Elam (11 points) scored off an inbound from Ruth, but Reed Jr., who shot just 4-of-18 and scored 10 points, tied the game on a corner three with 3:07 left off an inbound play at the end of the shot clock. Neither team would score again until McCoy’s go-ahead three, with the Bells squandering a golden chance to go in front on a missed layup by Denker.
The final buzzer signaled SHC’s first three-game winning streak since the Irish won four games to open the season, and it marked an amazing run for a team that had graduated two starters and lost two more to transfer. They had taken time to find their identity, and though the Bells thought they had the book on the boys from Ellis Street, the Irish managed to win with defense, rather than just outrunning teams and driving to the hoop. In fact, the faster pace seemed to favor a Bellarmine team that typically likes to slow opponents down and force low-percentage shots.
“The game was fastest when we got defensive rebounds, and everything happened from there,” Bellarmine head coach Patrick Schneider said after his team’s fourth consecutive Open Division Championship appearance. “They got shots when things slowed down because we didn’t hold to our defensive principles, and we didn’t move particularly well to get open.”
The dejected Bells left having lost at the Leavey Center for the third time in the last four years. Bellarmine is 14-5 overall in CCS championship games, but 1-3 in the four straight Open Division title game appearances.
At the other side, there were the Irish, rejoicing at the conclusion of a run that had been doubted by so many. After Wednesday’s win over Menlo-Atherton, McCormack said that his teammates loved each other and molded well together, and that was again on display Friday night, with the entire team mobbing MacKay after he received the championship plaque.
“Good things happen to good kids, and these are great kids,” MacKay said. “They just refuse to give in.”
