SAN FRANCISCO – There are some very happy baseball players tonight.
With St. Ignatius’ 68-61 win over Sacred Heart Cathedral, the Bruce-Mahoney Trophy will come down to the baseball game, set for March 17 at AT&T Park.
It’s a third straight year the Wildcats have won the basketball game played at USF’s War Memorial Gymnasium, and for the third year in a row, Darrion Trammell played an instrumental role in the SI victory.
He scored 24 points on 7-of-8 free-throw shooting and scored 12 of his team’s 14 points in the second quarter to give St. Ignatius (9-4, 2-1 WCAL) a 29-25 halftime advantage in the oldest rivalry west of the Mississippi River.
As good as the senior point guard was, Tuesday’s victory was hardly a solo act. Wrenn Robinson and Neal Begovich, two of five St. Ignatius players who suited up after missing multiple games due to injuries, were key components in a 12-0 run to bridge the third and fourth quarters to take control of the game.
Robinson, who missed the past week with a heel injury, scored 12 points, including a 3-pointer to put CCS No. 2
St. Ignatius up 46-41 with 1:27 left in the third. Begovich, who injured his knee on December 6 and had only appeared in one game in the prior month, scored on a putback to cap of the run at 53-41 early in the fourth and had a dunk in the final seconds to close the game with a flourish.
“Coach wanted to bring me off the bench because I hadn’t been practicing and we’ve had players who have been healthy the whole time playing hard,” said Robinson. “He just said to take the minutes you have, be aggressive and create.”
Begovich’s return eased some of the pressure in the post on Teddy Snyder, who still put up another 10 points and nine rebounds. Snyder scored six of his points in the first quarter and pulled down five rebounds in the third.
Sacred Heart Cathedral (10-3, 1-2) led 18-15 through one quarter thanks to a red-hot start to the game from sophomore point guard Bryce Monroe, who scored 11 in the quarter en route to a 28-point night. Monroe’s efforts certainly caught the attention of USF head coach Kyle Smith, who spoke with the sophomore following the game.
The ninth-ranked Fightin’ Irish never led in the second half but stayed close until the final two minutes of the third quarter, largely because of Monroe and E.J. Neal, a 6-foot-4 junior wing who finished with 18 points and 9 rebounds while going 8-for-10 at the line.
Monroe scored six third-quarter points as part of an 8-2 run to tie the game at 36, and the Irish evened the score at 41 on an Amin Oglesby free throw before St. Ignatius finally created some separation.
“In the first half, we weren’t really executing our gameplan,” said SI head coach Rob Marcaletti. “The hype of the game and this atmosphere had us trying to play iso ball. We were out of our comfort zone, and credit SH, they did that to us.”
After Trammell opened the second quarter by stealing the inbound pass and laying it in, plus a basket on the following possession to put his team ahead 19-18, St. Ignatius went scoreless for the next four minutes before a 10-2 run to close the half. After Brandon Beckman found Snyder underneath, a three-point play by Trammell cut the lead to 25-24 and his steal on the following possession led to yet another transition layup to put the Wildcats back on top.
“That’s just what D does,” said Marcaletti. “And he just knocks down free throws.”
Trammell, who went 29-for-32 at St. Ignatius’ three-game Sand Dune Classic in late December, was perfect on four free throws in the final 90 seconds. After a Neal 3-pointer and a Monroe and-1 trimmed the lead to three, Trammell converted two at the line with 1:25 left and put the game all but out of reach on an elbow jumper with just under a minute remaining.
Though Monroe and Neal were dynamite, a lack of secondary scoring hurt the Fightin’ Irish, as the rest of the roster accounted for just 15 points. The Wildcat bench outscored the SH reserves 16-0, even with Trammell in the starting lineup instead of spending the first three minutes on the bench, as has been customary over the past month.
“I had to get into the groove of things, and as you could see in the first quarter, it took me a while,” said a smiling Trammell.
His bench role wasn’t a disciplinary move, but rather one to maximize his production, and the results had paid off, with SI going 5-2 when Trammell hasn’t started, including a win over Marin Catholic in which he scored 31. However, he was inserted back into the starting lineup with the prestige and circumstances of the Bruce-Mahoney Game.
Whether St. Ignatius will keep the trophy for a sixth straight year comes down to that baseball game. While student sections often resort to “let’s play football” chants as a last-ditch effort in a defeat, both sides chanted “let’s play baseball” in anticipation of the deciding game for the trophy, and with that game set for St. Patrick’s Day, the Irish have to like their chances.
The grind of the WCAL will be evident as both teams play in rivalries again on Friday. St. Ignatius will travel to Serra for the Jungle Game with hopes of avenging last year’s buzzer-beater loss, while Sacred Heart Cathedral will host Riordan.
Around the WCAL
James Chun scored 24 points, including a go-ahead 3-pointer with 2:35 remaining, as No. 8 Riordan snapped a six-game losing streak to Serra with a 64-61 victory. Chun’s 3-pointer, his fourth and final of the night, sparked a 7-0 run, but the Padres closed the gap to one in the final moments thanks to three late 3-pointers from Masie Mohammadi, who finished with a team-high 14. Je’Lani Clark finished a 19-point, 11-rebound night with a pair of free throws with 1.5 seconds left to finish the game. Clark was 9-of-10 on free throws for the night.
Mohammadi was the only scorer in double figures for No. 7 Serra (9-4, 1-2), but the Padres got nine points apiece from three reserves as Parker McDonald, Diyar Yuksel and Denzel McCollum were all vital off the bench. Riordan (10-3, 2-1) also got a shot in the arm off the bench as ZImbabwean transfer Watidaishe Mukukula played his first game after sitting out a year due to transfer rules and scored 11 points.
CCS top-ranked Bellarmine got 21 points from Kendall Stubblefield en route to a 60-49 win over No. 13 Mitty (2-11, 0-3) to avenge last year’s CCS Open Division Championship loss. Bellarmine (11-2, 3-0) made it 19 straight WCAL wins behind the efforts of Stubblefield, Jake Wojcik (13 points) and Nathan Metzger (11 points).
No. 3 St. Francis (11-2, 3-0) made it 11 consecutive wins with a 73-57 victory over #12 Valley Christian (9-3, 0-3). The host Lancers took a 34-23 lead into halftime and never led by less than eight the rest of the way to remain tied with Bellarmine atop the WCAL standings.
