The Sacred Heart Cathedral Fightin' Irish decisively defeated the El Camino Colts, 71-53 to win their fourth straight CCS Division III title, the second CCS team ever to do so.
“It’s just a blessing to be able to have this experience. I told them to be humble about everything that’s happened to us," said SHC head coach Darrell Barbour. "Every high school player doesn’t get this opportunity. Every high school coach doesn’t get this opportunity."
The offense came out firing, as the Irish shot an impressive 58.6 percent in the first half (17-of-29), including 6-of-10 from three-point range.
“We just came out hot and ready to play," said SHC senior guard Tyler Petroni, who led the Irish with 17 points including three 3-pointers. "Our defense helped us."
The Irish were confident and composed coming into the game, and knew that they had a good chance at the title.
“This was just a regular game for us," said SHC senior Taylor Johns, who was limited to six points and one rebound because of foul trouble. "We knew we were the better team so we just came out and played our game."
The Irish were able to cruise to victory without a huge contribution from Johns, their star center, but will need him during their NorCals run, which starts next week.
“He has a tendency to fall asleep off the ball. And I think that that’s what hurts him a lot of times," said Barbour. "A lot of his fouls are not aggressive fouls. That’s frustrating for me."
The guards picked up the slack, though. Khalil James scored 12 points with four assists and Herman Pratt had 13 points. The shooting clinic came as a surprise to Barbour.
“I thought that our offense was fine the whole game. The only thing that bothers me is that when you get in this kind of setting, kids aren’t used to shooting in these kinds of gyms, so shooting percentage will go down, but our shots fell well," said Barbour. "I thought we were going to get the shots we wanted, just based on [the one time I saw them play]. And that’s not being disrespectful to them, I just thought that we were going to be able to do that.”
But the game did not start without concerns.
“My concern was defense. I thought early on, we didn’t defend them. They were scoring too easily - that bugs me," said Barbour. "It’s not that they were scoring, but scoring too easily. I thought in the second quarter, we did a better job of making it more difficult for their better players to score."
The Colts just came out flat, and couldn’t recover.
“We needed our full arsenal, and unfortunately we didn’t have it. And even with Elijah, we might not have had a chance anyway," said El Camino head coach Archi Junio, referring to the school suspension of star point guard Elijah White, who did not play. "Like I said, we needed to be clicking on all cylinders and we weren’t, especially defensively.”
The Colts’ usually tenacious defense put on a seemingly uninspiring performance as well.
“They were knocking shots down, and we weren’t playing aggressive defense like we usually do," said Junio. "It was a combination of both, and look at the score."
Junior forward Mike Smith had a game-high 23 points for the Colts off of 18 shots, and senior guard Anthony Knight had 17 points but needed to take 17 shots to do it. He also had a game-high four turnovers. Knight got fairly open looks in the first quarter, but that changed with a defensive tweak by the Irish.
“When we put Herman [Pratt] on him, I think that changed the complexity of the game for us,” said Barbour.
Irish standout forward Joshua Fox played his first game since injuring his leg against Archbishop Mitty in the WCAL championship. Despite the gimpy leg, he still led both teams in rebounding with 13. He also had eight points, two assists, and a block.
“He’s not 100 percent. But his presence on the floor makes us better. His basketball IQ makes us better. He makes plays without scoring the ball," said Barbour. "He can rebound, he can block shots. He doesn’t have his explosiveness back yet, who knows if he will? But I know that with him we’re a better team.”
Fox has been considered an underrated player and has had to fight quite a bit of adversity this week, but Barbour came to his defense and sang his praise.
“He’s a tough kid. You look at him, and from a physical standpoint, people think that he can’t play," said Barbour. "Number one, he’s a tough kid, and number two, he can play. He’s got good skills. He’s a basketball player.”
The game looked like it could be done early when in the first quarter, Pratt connected on a four-point play to put the Irish up 12-8, after which the Irish exploded on a run to end the quarter up 25-15. In the second quarter, up 32-20, Johns pointed his finger up, and picked up speed towards the basketball. James obeyed and threw the ball up near the rim, and Johns jumped over senior Colts center Mathiesen Rich (2 rebounds, 3 assists) and threw down the alley oop with two hands. That seemed to place the dagger in the Colts’ hearts, and the Irish ended the half on a 13-4 run capped by a buzzer-beating layup by James.
Both teams will look ahead to the state tournaments. But Barbour is more than happy with the present, and when asked about his aspirations to win state, he responded, “I know my players do. I don’t talk about it. I just, everyday, try to get better. I just think that this team. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m not a fortune-teller. But this team is different. Not because of the talent, but because of how they play together. And you don’t get that every year. I love my team. We’re good. And I love coaching them. I love practice. I don’t think we have very many bad practices, and you don’t really get that at the high school level or really any level.”
Petroni summed it up for the Irish: “It always feels good to win. We want to keep going, because our next loss is our last game.We’re looking to go all the way, as far as we can.”
The Colts will likely be more potent with White back in the lineup, but for now, it's all about the the Irish, who can relish in their dynastic fourth straight CCS D-III championship.
