Coming off an upset win of Palma, the top seed in CCS Division IV, Half Moon Bay put up a strong fight against another top-seeded team but ultimately came up short against No. 2 Sacred Heart Prep, 53-44, in the championship game Friday night at Santa Clara University. Both teams advance to the Northern California playoffs, which begin next week.
Kevin Donahue led the Gators (21-6) with 12 points while Cole McConnell chipped in with 10.
The main downfall for Half Moon Bay (23-6) was its inability to break the Gators’ full court press, leading to turnovers. The Gators were able to capitalize on those turnovers to score easy baskets.
The game started out very slow, with both teams being scoreless in the first few minutes. However, Half Moon Bay picked up the ball and led at the end of the first quarter 9-5. On the other hand, the fact that the teams struggled to score didn’t mean the game wasn’t aggressive. There was foul trouble on both sides with four from Half Moon Bay and five from Sacred Heart Prep.
In the second quarter, the game was still very close and looked like it could have gone either way. With back and forth shots from both teams and enormous pressure by each team’s defense, the quarter ended 22-21 with Sacred Heart taking the slight lead.
However, the half would not end without an aggressive play by Half Moon Bay sophomore guard E.J. Madriaga, who, with 1:59 left in the half, fought through a double-team trap next to the sideline to pass, while losing balance, to fellow sophomore Rico Nuno, who caught the ball for a turnaround lay in above a defender.
Coming into the third quarter with the crowd fired up, the Gators decided to slow it down with a calm 2-1-2 zone defense while still applying their full-court press. The full-court press worked more effectively in the second half than in the first.
Even with consistent baskets by the Gators, the Cougars could not let a star play go unnoticed. Another sophomore guard, Logan Marshall, flew down court, faked out a guard by stepping left but instead used his second step to go right and went for the lay-in over a Sacred Heart Prep defender in the waning seconds of the third quarter to cut the Sacred Heart Prep to 34-31 at the end of the third.
Going into the fourth, Half Moon Bay senior forward Spencer White showed relentless effort to pick up his team by diving on the ball and getting needed jump balls to give the Cougars a fighting chance. However, Sacred Heart’s full court press and top-of-the-line perimeter shooting gave the Gators the championship.
Senior guard Carter White led Half Moon Bay with 12 points, four rebounds and two steals while Marshall added eight points on a pair of 3-pointers and a layup.
