SAN JOSE — There was simply no way Mikey Mitchell was losing his final game in a Mitty uniform.
On the eve before he embarked on his college career at Pepperdine, Mitchell made his final game as a Monarch a memorable one, with 27 points, seven rebounds and six assists as Mitty claimed a second consecutive CCS Open Division championship and fifth title in nine years with a 69-63 overtime win over Riordan.
He’s just a complete point guard. It’s really, really hard to game-plan against Mikey Mitchell,” Riordan head coach Joey Curtin said. “He just does so many things well.”
King-Jhsanni Wilhite’s 3-pointer with 47 seconds left in regulation sent the game to OT, but Mitty (17-1) got the first eight points of the extra period, with a Mitchell and-1 starting the run. He finished things off by going 3-for-4 at the free throw line in the final minute.
“It’s the work and the preparation, and then you have to have a little bit of an ‘it’ factor,” head coach Tim Kennedy said. “Aaron (Gordon) had it and Mike has it. They live for these big moments.”
The last moments Mitchell spent in a Mitty uniform consisted of a celebration on the floor with his teammates and a long embrace with Kennedy, with whom he’s won three league championships and back-to-back CCS Open Division crowns.
“He loves to shoot and work on his game, and that’s how I grew up,” Kennedy said of his close connection with Mitchell.
While the night ultimately belonged to the three-year starter, Riordan (14-4) made things awfully interesting, with Wilhite scoring a game-high 35 points. He sank eight 3-pointers, one shy of the school record, and scored 13 in the fourth quarter to complete the comeback and force overtime.
“He was able to create some deep shots that were contested, and you’ve just got to tip your cap to him,” Kennedy said of Wilhite.
Just a sophomore, Wilhite has already developed a penchant for stepping up in championship games. As a freshman at St. Ignatius, he scored a game-high 27 in a Division III Championship victory over Sacred Heart Cathedral, and he exceeded those numbers on Friday. After Mitchell’s fourth and final 3-pointer gave the Monarchs a 45-35 lead early in the fourth, Wilhite came down and immediately sank one at the other end, and he drained another to trim the lead to 52-47.
His assist on a three by Lee Hubbard III cut the lead to three, and though Arrish Bhandal sank a clutch 3-pointer from the wing with just over two minutes left, Riordan got the final five points of regulation, with Robert Vaihola scoring in the paint and Wilhite hitting the game-tying shot. A Wilhite foul with 20.3 seconds left in regulation ensured Mitty would get the final shot of the fourth quarter, but the Crusaders played phenomenal defense and allowed only a contested off-balanced look just before the buzzer.
Overtime, however, was a completely different story. With Mitchell’s and-1, two Aidan Burke free throws and a Zach Granberry three, Mitty led 67-59 with 2:20 left in the extra period, and despite another 3-pointer from Wilhite to chip away at the lead, it was too much for the Crusaders to overcome as the top-seeded Monarchs constantly forced the visitors to the outside.
“Mitty’s big, and they were packing it in the paint,” Curtin said.
Bhandal and Nigel Burris made life tough on the Riordan post tandem of Vaihola and Mor Seck, with Vaihola entering the final two minutes of regulation with just three points. Seck, the hero of Wednesday’s semifinal win over St. Ignatius, finished with 11 points and eight rebounds.
“(Vaihola) never really got comfortable, and we sent a second body at him,” Kennedy said. “He’s such a force down there, the way he clears out space and clears out bodies.”
Vaihola did sink an early 3-pointer, but Mitty got one from Mitchell in a rapid response and closed the first quarter up 16-10. The Monarchs, who never trailed, took a 12-point lead with 3:24 left in the first half on a three from Burke, who finished the night with 11 points and seven rebounds.
Mitty took a 33-23 lead into the break, and despite scoring just twice in the first four-and-a-half minutes of the third quarter, got a key putback from Granberry, who finished with nine points and eight rebounds, after freshman Zion Sensley’s 3-pointer had cut it to 35-31. Mitchell got the final basket of the quarter to send the Monarchs into the fourth with a nine-point advantage.
“He impacts the game from so many different levels. He’s more than a guy who just scores,” Kennedy said of Mitchell. “He just has such an impact on both ends. He’s matured from where he was as a freshman, and he still has so much more room to get better.”
After a 13-point, five-assist first half, Mitchell collected five of his seven rebounds across the final two quarters and went out as a champion, a fitting end to a sensational career. Bhandal, whose best moments always seemed to come against Riordan, finished with 12 points, while Hubbard had seven points and six assists in his final game in purple and gold.
