SAN FRANCISCO - With 3:55 remaining in the fourth quarter, it appeared that the Archbishop Mitty Monarchs had survived a trap game in the Sunset District against St. Ignatius. Mitty had just reached its first two-possession lead of night on the heels of a nine-point run to start the fourth quarter ahead by four, thanks to scoring from Owen Browne. Yet, SI freshman guard King Jhsanni-Wilhite immediately answered by racing down the court to drain two foul shots to keep the Cats within two points.
For the next three minutes, the teams traded leads before St. Ignatius senior Daniel Webster drained a three-pointer with 17 seconds left to put the Wildcats up 55-54, a lead they would hold onto thanks to a clutch stop by Kourosh Kahn-Adle on the defensive end.
“You gotta be ready to come and play every night,” Mitty head Coach Tim Kennedy said following the loss. “You gotta be ready for a dog fight, especially in your opponent’s building”.
How were the Monarchs, the 11th-ranked team in the nation according to MaxPreps, and ranked second in the CCS by Prep2Prep, facing an SI team with a losing WCAL record, even in this position in the first place? A slow start and sloppy play was the reason why.
Mitty shot a poor 9-23 from the foul line, starting 0-8 from the charity stripe. The Monarchs also found themselves in holes of 12-2 and 28-14 in the first half, as the Wildcats pushed early and often. Jhsanni-Wilhite scored 11 points in the first half, as fellow underclassman Giancarlo Toledo-Rivera nailed two threes to provide a spark for the Wildcats. Wilhite finished the contest with 18 points, leading all scorers. Yet the Monarchs appeared to have woken up by the end of the second quarter, pushing a 14-2 run to close the half and cut the Wildcat lead to two. The Wildcats surrendered a similar 12-0 run against Archbishop Riordan to close the first half last Friday, and it appeared the Wildcats were letting this game slip away as well.
Yet Coach Rob Marcoletti was confident.
“Our last couple of games, we’ve had people tell us, you’re getting better. You’re almost there. We’ve been better," Marcoletti said. "We just haven’t shown it, and we did tonight."
Although Wilhite has been the face of the Wildcats all season, SI leaned on their senior guards when it mattered most. Kahn-Adele and Webster both stepped up on Friday for their best performances of WCAL play. Although Kahn-Adle came off of the bench, he put together his strongest game defensively of the season, which included contesting an inbound and drawing a jump-ball to give SI the ball with seven seconds to play.
Daniel Webster drained a three in the opening two minutes for the Wildcats and kept his intensity all game, playing terrific perimeter defense and finishing the game with 11 points. Yet, Webster’s moment came with under 20 seconds remaining in the game. After taking the ball on the perimeter, Webster drained a contested three to pull the Wildcats ahead by one with only 17 seconds to play, setting up Kahn-Adle’s defensive stop.
"I was feeling good coming into tonight, we had some good practices this week," Webster stated. "I just felt the trust of my teammates on that last shot. I had a good pass from Ethan and decided to let it go."
The Wildcats will travel to San Jose to face off with the Bellarmine Bells next Tuesday, while the Monarchs will travel north to take on the Riordan Crusaders in San Francisco in a game full of WCAL title implications. The Monarchs are a game out of first place in the league.
