When Archbishop Mitty star forward Aaron Gordon got table-topped and slammed hard on his back during Wednesday night's CCS Open Division semifinal against Archbishop Riordan, he couldn't help but feel he had been through this before.
“Three games ago, I jumped as high as I could to catch an alley-oop and was undercut, and then landed directly on my tailbone," Gordon said. "This game, I jumped to catch a post feed and I got undercut again and landed on the exact same spot, so it did not feel good."
If Gordon was in pain, it certainly didn't show as he racked up 28 points and 27 rebounds to lead Mitty (24-5) into the championship game with a 59-51 win over the Crusaders (18-11).
“I’m about to go home and ice and sleep," Gordon said after the game. "I’m going to be looking a little stiff out there [in the Finals], but I’ll do the best I can.”
Gordon hit 11 of 14 field goals and pulled off a reverse alley-oop dunk off a feed from shooting guard Dakari Monroe late in the second period.
For Riordan, small forward Bobby Arenas topped the scoring charts with 14 points, followed by point guard Jiday Ugbaja and shooting guard Frankie Ferrari, who each had 11.
Mitty started fast, opening a 13-3 lead with threes from shooting guard Brandon Abajelo and point guard Connor Peterson. The Crusaders tossed up airballs and missed many open shots. They shot only 7-for-25 by the end of the first half, compared to Mitty’s 10-for-19. The Crusaders found themselves down 18-8 at the end of the first period.
A spark reignited the Crusaders’ game in the second quarter, in the form of Arenas’ long jumper over Gordon from the top of the key. From there, Mitty got two consecutive traveling calls and Arenas sank another three. Ugbaja managed a block and the Crusaders came back to within 26-20.
Gordon dribbled up-court for the final shot of the quarter, but a sudden and unexpected double-team by Ugbaja and point guard Mabrey Geru forced a steal. The ball was dished to Arenas, who sank a three from the left corner. Gordon took the inbound but Ugbaja stole it again within seconds, sinking a layup to put his team down by one point, 26-25, at halftime.
“We had good energy to start and built a 12-point lead. We were in attack mode. Defensively, we were rotating the pass, making them shoot tough shots," Mitty coach Tim Kennedy said. "But then we got loose with the ball and let them get back into it."
The sequence late in the second quarter provided hope for Riordan heading into the second half and Mitty was clearly concerned.
“We started turning over the ball and they got some transition points. We got loose where our rotations were a little bit rough in the transition and they got wide-open threes," Kennedy said. "Next thing you know, they got their confidence and we got a ballgame.”
Riordan had a similar third quarter, outscoring Mitty 19-13 to take a 44-39 lead heading into the fourth quarter. Mitty was forced to call a timeout after power forward Zach Masoli hit a nice jump shot.
Similar to the Monarchs’ game against Soquel, in which they trailed the whole game but came back to win at the end, Mitty took a firm hold of the fourth quarter and ran the score back up. Gordon was knocked on his back but pulled through, scoring eight points in the fourth quarter to win it. Peterson finished with 12 points.
“Sloppy turnovers, careless mistakes and laziness on defense let them back into the game,” said Gordon. “We got run-outs and easy buckets [to get back into it]. But it all starts on defense. We picked our defense up and our momentum shifted back into our favor.”
Mitty faces the Serra Padres (25-4) in the CCS Finals, 8:00 on Saturday at Santa Clara University. Mitty leads the series against the Padres this season, 2-1.
