San Ramon Valley 69, Dixie (Utah) 68
With his team trailing by two in the waning seconds Saturday night, San Ramon Valley coach Brian Botteen wanted no part of overtime as he addressed his players during a final timeout.
He drew up a play that ended with the Danville school celebrating a second consecutive championship in the Gold Division at The Classic at Damien. It was the same play his team ran last season to win a semifinal game at this prestigious Southern California tournament.
“The first thing I said is it wouldn’t be our style to play to tie,” Botteen told the Bay Area News Group after the victory over Dixie of Utah. “The guys looked very excited and were like, ‘Let’s do it right now.’ We went with the three-point option.”
The winning play began with 6-foot-5 forward Seamus Deely, who finished with 19 points, handling the ball. Luke Isaak, a 6-3 guard, ran toward Deely in a false screen attempt, hoping for a defensive switch.
When the switch happened, the ball went to Isaak, who did what he did last season from the same spot on the court.
He made the 3-pointer, this time on a bank shot, to give SRV a lead it did not relinquish as Dixie tried to run one last play to reclaim the advantage.
Isaak finished with 17 points and was named the Gold Division MVP for the second consecutive season. Deely also made the all-tournament team, as he did last season.
“Two times in a row is crazy,” Botteen said. “They said they haven’t seen back-to-back champions at Damien. That in itself is great to be part of a little history here.”
Kyle Lemke, Dixie’s 6-9 center, was a handful for SRV, finishing with 25 points.
SRV stretched its winning streak to eight games while improving to 12-3.
Dixie is 10-2.
Salesian 62, Damien 59
Salesian bounced back from an overtime loss to St. John Bosco in a semifinal on Friday to edge tournament host Damien in Platinum Division’s third-place game.
De’Undrae Perteete (18 points), Aaron Hunkin-Claytor (15) and Elias Obenyah (10) scored in double figures for Salesian, which went 3-1 in the tournament’s top division to improve to 13-1 on the season.
Hunkin-Claytor and Zander Jimenez were named to the all-tournament team.
Damien, which got 22 points from Nathaniel Garcia. fell to 13-3.
De La Salle 69, American Fork (Utah) 68
De La Salle finished 2-2 in the Platinum Division at Damien, edging American Fork behind 22 points from Leo Ricketts, 11 points from Arshawn Salkhi and 12 points and six rebounds from Alec Blair, who made the all-tournament team. The Spartans also got a big lift off the bench Darrell Cenido as they improved to 12-2. American Fork is 7-5.
St. Augustine 57, Archbishop Mitty 55
Mitty suffered a heartbreaking loss in the National Division’s third-place game at the Torrey Pines Holiday Classic as Isaiah Hasten scored on a put-back with seven-tenths of a second left for the winning points. Nathan d’Abreu Noronha scored 22 points and Tyler Jones and Gavin Ripp each had 12 to lead Mitty.
Archbishop Mitty 82, Clackamas (Oregon) 67
By Mitty’s standards, this was a nail-biter. On the third and final day of the Portland (Oregon) Holiday tournament, the nation’s top-ranked team trailed Clackamas 22-15 after the first quarter and the score was tied 38-38 at halftime.
But Mitty took command after the break, outscoring Clackamas 27-13 in the third quarter, and went on to improve to 10-0 on the season.
McKenna Woliczko (26 points, 19 rebounds, one block) and Mogan Cheli (25 points, five assists, four rebounds) once again led the way for Mitty. The Monarchs also got 11 points and seven rebounds from Elana Weisman.
Woliczko, Cehli and Belle Bramer were named to the all-tournament team.
San Ramon Valley 61, Bishop Gorman-Las Vegas 49
SRV captured the Gold Crown tournament championship in the San Diego area, rallying from a 38-27 halftime deficit to turn back Bishop Gorman.
Sofia Bowes (18 points), Sierra Chambers (17 points) and Amanda Kerner (14 points) led the way for SRV, which won its 10th in a row to improve to 12-1.
“Super resilient effort and dug deep with some tired legs,” SRV posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Bishop Gorman is 8-3.
