CONCORD — De La Salle Excessive fell behind Miramonte with three minutes left within the first quarter after which spent the remainder of the evening hoping in opposition to all hope to interrupt by the floor like a swimmer looking for one gulp of air.
When it lastly occurred, with Javon Johnson driving for a fastbreak layup simply earlier than the buzzer, it gave the second-seeded Spartans a 40-38 win over the Matadors Wednesday evening and a berth within the North Coast Part Open Division title sport in opposition to No. 1 Campolindo.
That Johnson would rating the successful factors on a fastbreak basket with the house followers flooding the ground in ecstasy was an uncommon ending to a possession-by-possession defensive battle typified by lengthy scoreless spells by each groups.
Miramonte, 23-5, just isn't accomplished. The Matadors will face Northgate for the third time after which advance to the NorCal playoffs.
De La Salle, 22-4, trailed 31-15 on the half and was down 36-27 on the finish of three quarters. The Matadors, by a mixture of turnovers and a few excruciatingly shut missed photographs, had been outscored 13-2 within the fourth quarter and scored simply seven factors within the second half.
“I feel Miramonte performed nice, they usually’re most likely in that locker room feeling like they need to have gained,” De La Salle coach Marcus Schroeder mentioned. “And I don’t essentially disagree. I’ll say this about our guys — we actually hung in. We’ve accomplished all of it season. We’ve been down within the second half and our guys simply sort of stick collectively and preserve speaking the fitting manner and it simply sort of turned for us.”
Johnny Semany led De La Salle with 13 factors, with Johnson ending with 12 and Jordan Webster with 11.
Miramonte’s Jeff Frye led all scorers with 15 factors regardless of enjoying with foul hassle, whereas Caden Breznikar had 9 and Tyler Dutto seven.
The Spartans trailed 36-27 going into the fourth quarter, with Miramonte occurring a scoreless streak that lasted 6:09. But the Matadors nonetheless had a 38-31 lead on a shot by Frye in the important thing earlier than the Spartans known as time with 2:40 left.
A 3-pointer by Webster reduce the margin to 38-34, Johnson hit a pair of foul photographs to make it 38-36, and a layup inside a minute by Alec Blair lastly tied the rating at 38-38.
When one final Miramonte shot rolled off, the Spartans had the fastbreak alternative they wanted to win the sport, with Billy Haggerty getting the rebound, passing it to Blair, who acquired it to Johnson.
“Billy acquired the rebound, handed it as much as Alec, and in my peripheral, I noticed the shot clock at about six, seven seconds, and I simply had a wide-open quick break.,” Johnson mentioned. “There have been about two seconds left and I simply knew it was over.”
Schroeder gave Miramonte credit score.
“Miramonte is de facto, actually good,” Schroeder mentioned. “I really feel badly for groups that need to play them shifting ahead. I prefer to assume we’re good defensively, however we weren’t within the first half. We challenged the blokes at halftime. We had been reactive they usually got here out with good composure. However we sort of stored chipping away and had been capable of make some large performs down the stretch.”
Though Miramonte’s season just isn't over, coach Chris Lavdiaotis conceded the loss to De La Salle shall be checked out because the one which acquired away.
“They’re taking it actually exhausting,” Lavdiotis mentioned. “The fellows really feel like they didn’t win this sport as a lot as we misplaced it. We felt like we must always have gained, and that’s the one sport this 12 months I'd say that.”
As deliberate as the sport was due to stellar protection on each side, Lavdiotis felt the Matadors could have been slightly too deliberate down the stretch with a lead.
“We prefer to shoot at 20 seconds on the newest, and that’s how our offense is geared,” Lavdiotis mentioned. “We didn’t get it accomplished. We didn’t alter nicely sufficient to what they had been taking away from us. You’ve acquired to counter every little thing they do. We didn’t counter.”