In the first round of the first CCS Open Division for basketball, the fourth-seeded Archbishop Riordan Crusaders took down the fifth-seeded Palo Alto Vikings, 58-47.
The loss ended the Vikings’ 21-game winning streak, and placed the Crusaders in a situation that CCS hoped to avoid by creating the Open Division -- an all-WCAL semi-final round.
The Crusaders led for most of the game, and entered the fourth quarter with a 34-27 lead. Then, they simply exploded on offense.
“We finally made shots,” said Riordan coach Rich Buckner. “We were trying to figure out, did we play sloppy, did we play lackadaisical? We just didn’t make shots. The aggressiveness was there, and we put forth a good effort on defense, but finally when on that 15-2 run. The shots that we previously were missing, we finally knocked them down.”
Bobby Arenas and Frankie Ferrari combined for 13 of the team's first 15 points of the quarter as the 15-2 run put the Crusaders ahead 49-33.
“We tried to attack them,” said Ferrari. “We had a lot of defensive stops, and that helped us.”
The Crusaders came out hot in the first quarter, making seven of nine first-quarter shots. The Vikings had good possessions on offense, but forward Aubrey Dawkins couldn’t get into a rhythm early and missed his first four shots before scoring his team’s first five points.
The Crusaders ended the quarter leading 13-8.
The dynamic of the game changed with 7:40 left in the second quarter, when standout forward Keller Chryst went down with an ankle injury when trying to grab a rebound.
“It kind of changed everything,” Palo Alto coach Adam Sax said. “We had to move guys around in different spots on offense. The timing wasn’t the same. We had to adjust.”
The beginning of the second quarter was sloppy for both teams. The Vikings committed five turnovers in the quarter, and the Crusaders shot just 4-of-14.
“It was the big-game jitters," Sax said. "Playing in the first-ever CCS Open Division game, not knowing your opponent, each team feeling like they’re going against a good team, so they were probably trying a little bit too hard.”
The Vikings were able to take advantage of the Crusaders’ poor shooting and cut the lead down to three to make the score 19-16, but the impact of Chryst’s injury became apparent when Riordan finished the quarter with five consecutive points.
The third quarter was more of the same for both teams, as each team only scored 10 points in the quarter.
The Crusaders will move on to play WCAL rival Archbishop Mitty, which survived an upset bid by Soquel.
“That Soquel team is tough. That wasn’t a fluke,” said Buckner. “We are going to have our work cut our for us. Now we’re probably going to get a ‘Raging Bull’ on Wednesday, so we better be prepared for that.”
Mitty swept the season series, and won their WCAL semifinal matchup in a 72-69 thriller. Still, the Crusaders are confident.
“We look at every opponent the same,” Ferrari said. “We believe that we can beat anybody in the state of California.”
For the Vikings, the loss was their first since early December.
"Bad start," said Dawkins. "But we've got to adjust and somehow adapt and put points in the basket. We played well. We played good defense, but obviously they played better defense."
Dawkins led all scorers with 24 points on 8-of-22 shooting and took 12 rebounds, and Mathias Schmutz scored 12 points for the Vikings.
Arenas led the Crusaders with 19 points, and Ferrari added 16 points and seven assists.
The Crusaders and the Monarchs play on Wednesday, Feb. 27 at 7:30 p.m. at Independence High.
