SACRAMENTO - At nearly every opportunity this season, St. Joseph Notre Dame made sure to remind themselves of last season’s buzzer-beating loss in the state championship game to Horizon Christian.
The photograph of that winning shot hung in the window of coach Don Lippi’s office throughout the year until hours before the Pilots Division V state championship game against Renaissance Academy on Friday.
“This morning, we took that picture out,” said Lippi, “and burned it in a garbage can.”
It was St. Joe’s who started the game on fire, hitting seven of its first eight shots, and also holding Renaissance Academy scoreless in a critical second quarter on its way to a dominating 57-32 win over the Wildcats at Sleep Train Arena for the school’s fifth state championship.
Senior Temidayo Yussuf, a Long Beach State commit who scored 20 points and grabbed 19 rebounds in last year’s title game loss, finished with 21 points and 15 rebounds against the Wildcats.
In the Pilots 2-3 zone defense, Yussuf and junior big man Lamont Banks were pivotal in forcing Renaissance Academy (24-8) into its lengthy scoring drought and 25 percent shooting.
“I think it was jitters,” said Renaissance coach Sid Cooke, whose team went 11:26 without a point and 14:06 without a field goal over the first, second, and third quarters. “We came out a little tight and they’ve been here the last three years. We missed a bunch of easy shots and then it just kept steamrolling after that.”
The Pilots (31-5) led 14-8 before a 15-0 run to close the first half and took a 29-8 lead into the locker room. After missing four free throws in the final 11 seconds of last year’s loss, they wanted to make sure this was a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
“I just kept saying, ‘Don’t let up’,” said Yussuf, who scored nine points in the third quarter as St. Joe’s extended its lead to 41-16 before the final period. “We’ve seen teams come back from 20 and we’ve come back from 20 this year so we know what can happen.”
St. Joe’s knew it would have an advantage inside and remained disciplined by feeding the ball to Yussuf and the 6-foot-4 Banks, who had 14 points and seven rebounds. The Pilots finished with a 36-16 rebounding advantage and shot 61 percent (27-of-44).
“I have three favorite teams,” said Lippi, who remarked that his team took too many outside shots early this season. “This is one of my favorite ones because we have freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. We beat Central Catholic (by 12 in the regional final) after losing to them by 16. We showed so much improvement.”
The 32 points were a season-low for Renaissance Academy as it was averaging 60.1 points per game. Marquis Mosley paced the team with 12 points, but needed 14 shots, and the team’s second leading scorer Marty Gaizauskas tied a season-low with four points.
After the Pilots put the finishing touches on the win and became the first Northern California school to win five boys basketball state championships, Yussuf motioned to the large contingent of fans who made the trek to Sacramento.
“From last night all the way until now,” said Yussuf, “I was picturing it in my head, me doing that to the crowd.”
