SAN FRANCISCO — Joey Curtin wanted to take a timeout, but Andrew Hilman looked at his head coach and told him, “Don’t do it, Coach. I’ve got you.”
And playing in the building he will call home next year — War Memorial Gym on the campus of the University of San Francisco — Hilman delivered in the clutch Tuesday night.
With Riordan and St. Ignatius tied atop the West Catholic Athletic League standings and tied at 51 on the scoreboard in the dying seconds, Hilman dribbled the ball and used up most of the shot clock before starting his action with nine seconds to go in the game. He maneuvered around SI point guard Raymond Whitley, worked his way inside the 3-point line, then put up an off-balance jumper over two taller Wildcat players, Noah Kirsch-Lopez and Alex Moore.
Didn’t matter. The ball swished through the net as the shot clock buzzer sounded. The game clock hit zeros a second or two later, and the Crusaders had a 53-51 win and first place all to themselves.
“When he said, ‘I got you,’ mid-dribble, I said, ‘All right, you’ve got it. I’m not going to call timeout,’” Curtin said. “If I didn’t think he had it, I would’ve called a timeout. But it’s Andrew Hilman, so you let him go.”
The USF commit, who chose the Dons over offers from Cal and Washington, started the game nearly as emphatically as he finished it. Hilman soared in for two thunderous dunks in the first quarter, and Crusaders star post player JP Pihtovs dunked twice himself as Riordan (16-1, 7-0 WCAL) led by six after a quarter.
Moore, the 6-foot, 9-inch sophomore forward, was SI’s only consistent source of offense in the first half. He knocked down a 3-pointer for the Wildcats’ lone first-quarter field goal, then hit three more times from outside in the second period, giving him 12 of his team’s 18 first-half points.
“(His ceiling) is super high,” SI head coach Jason Greenfield said. “When he gets strong enough, he’ll be able to finish inside. That’s age and size and maturity and strength, and that’ll come in time. He was great from outside, and defensively he was pretty good too.”
Riordan started to heat up from behind the arc late in the first half as well. Pihtovs stepped up and hit a 3-pointer, then another from DJ Armstrong made it a 12-point Crusaders lead at the break. Armstrong’s 12 points all came in the first 16 minutes, including 10 in the second quarter.
But the Wildcats (15-2, 6-1) worked their way back into the game in the third as Moore finally got some help. Sharpshooter Steele Labagh, an MIT commit, connected from long range for his only made field goal of the night, and that seemed to take the lid off the basket for SI. The Wildcats trailed by as many as 14 points before an 18-5 run cut their deficit to one.
“They weren’t allowing us to pass inside, and we weren’t establishing the real estate. Our bigs were not doing a good job in that first half of owning the paint,” Greenfield said. “I just wish we didn’t spot them 12 in the first half and then start to play. We play four quarters like this, it’s a different feeling.”
The teams went back and forth in the final quarter, with Riordan getting a big boost off the bench from Gabrielius Kerys, who drilled three second-half 3-pointers. Kerys and Hillman were the only Crusaders to score in the fourth. On the other side, it was Kirsch-Lopez coming through off the bench for SI, with six of his eight points coming in the fourth quarter.
A 3-point play from Hilman put Riordan up by two late, but Whitley rebounded Labagh’s missed 3-pointer and got fouled on the way up, hitting both free throws to tie the game. All that did, though, was set the stage for Hilman’s signature moment.
“Coach Curtin believed in me,” Hilman said. “I just felt like I had to take that shot as a senior, the guy who has been leading the team. I just felt like I had to take the last shot.”
The Crusaders, who have won 37 straight games in WCAL play dating back to 2023, now have a one-game lead over the Wildcats heading into Thursday night’s home game against Sacred Heart Cathedral. The Wildcats also return home Thursday night for the Beach Game against Serra.
These two teams will meet again in the regular-season finale on Feb. 17 at Crusader Forum, perhaps with the league title on the line.
“They match up well with us. It’s a good matchup,” Curtin said. “They have height, they have shooters, they have depth, they have experienced guards. It’s a really good team. They’re top-10 in the state for a reason. They’re really, really good.”
Riordan girls dominate paint to beat SI
Earlier in the evening, Zion McGuire’s 12 first-half points led the Crusaders to a 51-39 win over the Wildcats in the girls’ game.
McGuire was unstoppable inside early on, with nine points in the first quarter alone, before foul trouble plagued her in the second half. Trenia Dunbar was also in double figures with 11 points for Riordan (12-5, 4-1 WCAL), while Nylah Dyson chipped in with nine.
Crusaders head coach Will Watkins, a 1999 Riordan graduate, has now won four straight meetings against SI (15-4, 3-2). Led by a game-high 19 points from Hayley McGee, the Wildcats made a run in the fourth quarter and reduced their deficit to single digits, but a big 3-pointer by Mafalda Fontan Rodriguez halted any thought of a big comeback.
Riordan visits Sacred Heart Cathedral on Thursday evening, while SI is back in action Saturday at home against Valley Christian.
“Every year we’re doing better and better as a program,” Watkins said. “We want to chase the Division I state championship this year. We’re playing a lot of high-level competition, and we’re competitive.”
