Bambauer Classic Day 2: SI Rolls, Miramonte Advances, and a Last-Second Four-Point Play
Five of Thursday's eight games were decided by five points or fewer.
For all of the close finishes at Day 2 of the 27th Bambauer Classic, the most exciting ending of all was in a consolation bracket game.
Tyrrell Price’s four-point play with 0.2 seconds left gave the Lincoln Mustangs an improbable 82-81 win over the Mills Vikings in a consolation bracket game.
Lincoln (4-9) trailed for all but a minute-long span in the first quarter and allowed 50 points in the first half, a defensive performance that disgusted head coach Carl Jacobs so much that he hardly spoke to his team at halftime. Mills (3-9) had a chance to ice the game on a pair of free throws with 7.5 seconds left, but missed both, and Price drew contact as his prayer was answered with 0.2 to go.
He had made one of two free throws to cut the lead to three with 9.5 left after Vikings senior Jaeden Vazquez rushed a shot instead of waiting for the Mustangs to foul, a clear case of “bad process, good results” that paid off as his shot in the lane gave Mills an 81-77 advantage with 19.8 left.
Vazquez, who missed Wednesday’s loss to Marin Catholic with illness and came off the bench, scored a game-high 29 points, including 12 in the fourth quarter. Lincoln closed to within a point on a Ceyaan Lutt bucket with 2:43 left, but Vazquez scored, then grabbed a steal and converted a layup to put the Vikings up 77-72.
The Mustangs trailed 79-77 after Sommari Tanner’s three-point play with 37.8 left. Tanner, who scored 38 in Wednesday’s loss to Arcata, scored 13 of his 19 on Thursday in the fourth quarter.
Lutt, who missed Wednesday’s game with an unspecified injury, scored a team-high 26, including 22 in the first half. Lincoln went into halftime trailing 50-43, with Jason Pember and Tyler Ngo each scoring all eight of their points in the first half for Mills. Junior guard Jefriel Bacorro scored 21 for the Vikings, including 14 in the first half, and senior forward Joshua Lee added nine.
St. Ignatius 75, Ygnacio Valley 53
Arguably the most anticipated game of the day proved to be a laugher as the St. Ignatius Wildcats jumped out to a 44-12 lead and led 67-31 in a rout over the Ygnacio Valley Wolves.
The Wildcats hit nine threes in the first half, with Marco Cerchiai, starting in place of the injured Theo Lamb (ankle), sinking four.
“The length is great and the shooting is great. He got a lot of looks with their big on him,” head coach Jason Greenfield said of Cerchiai, who scored all 12 of his points in the first half. “He knows what we’re trying to do and he averages two or three offensive rebounds a game.”
St. Ignatius (7-1) came out swinging behind sophomore Steele Labagh, who scored 11 of his team-high 16 in a 28-8 first quarter. His putback midway through the second put the Wildcats up 44-12, and they led 47-18 at halftime.
Marcus Bast scored eight of his 11 points in the third quarter, including a three that put the ‘Cats up 60-27, and dished out a game-high seven assists. Shawn Boquiren scored nine off the bench, with his 3-pointer to open the fourth stretching the lead to 36. Sebastian Fisher also scored nine off the bench and Lucian Speaks added six late points.
Loyal Morris scored a game-high 17 for Ygnacio Valley (9-3), but the Wolves shot just 8-for-33 (24.2%) in the first half. Tone Kellogg Jr. scored 10 of his 12 in the second half, while Jalan Cody and Zaire King each finished with six. TJ Tatom logged five points, seven rebounds and six assists.
Miramonte 52, Montgomery 49
In 2021, the Miramonte Matadors won the Bambauer Classic with just seven players.
This year’s group isn’t quite so short-staffed, suiting up 13, but they exemplified the same unbreakable spirit in a 52-49 quarterfinal win over the Montgomery Vikings.
Chase Miller hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 3:41 to go and Marcus Robinson played stellar defense on the final possession to thwart a game-tying 3-point attempt as the Matadors, who won just five games in the entire 2022-23 season, improved to 8-2 by winning a game that featured seven lead changes and four ties.
Montgomery (10-2) went into halftime with a 29-23 lead after a 19-point second quarter, but the Mats countered by sinking five threes in the third quarter and taking a 40-33 lead off an 11-0 run.
The Vikings were quick to answer with five points from Caden DeVries, who shared high scoring honors with Miller at 15 points apiece. Bobby McGovern scored seven of his 10 in the fourth quarter for Montgomery, including a go-ahead 3-pointer with 5:41 left, but Jack Quinnild promptly knotted it up at 45 with a three of his own.
McGovern then assisted on a Michael Ule layup to put the Vikings ahead again, but Chris Kaufhold found Miller late in the shot clock for an and-1 opportunity. Miller missed the free throw, leaving the teams tied at 47, but sank his third 3-pointer of the game 25 seconds later to put his team in front for good.
Marcus Robinson, the lone remnant of the 2021-22 team, scored 14.
“This team definitely has that potential,” Robinson said when asked to compare the current unit to the one from his sophomore year.
Quinnild and Kaufhold each finished with seven points, while Izeyah Wright added 10 in the losing effort.
Arcata 65, Marin Catholic 62
Marin Catholic was dead-set on not letting Luke Lemke beat them after watching him torch Lincoln for 31 points a night earlier.
So when the Arcata Tigers needed a go-ahead bucket, Lemke managed to keep his dribble alive, avoiding a travel, then found Kalani Butor for a mid-range jumper with 30.1 seconds left.
Butor scored nine of his 16 in the fourth quarter and played the hero with the go-ahead bucket after the Wildcats had tied the game on a Charles Williams free throw with 1:06 left.
Williams had a chance to win the game in the final seconds, but his 3-pointer wouldn’t go down. Butor grabbed the rebound and made the first of two free throws with 2.2 seconds left. Head coach Kellen Maynard planned to foul to prevent Marin Catholic (4-9) from launching an attempt to tie it, but his plans became moot when Lucian Rodriguez grabbed an offensive rebound to seal the game.
Arcata (7-5) played without 6-foot-3 forward Luke Moxon, who injured his ankle on Wednesday, but regained the services of 6-4 Dayquan Dunn, who missed the Lincoln game with an illness. Dunn more than made up for lost time with a game-high 22 points, including 16 in the first half.
The Tigers led 21-15 after a quarter after a fortuitous bounce off a body in the lane set Finn Warner up for a 3-pointer, one that certainly won’t be forgotten in a game decided by such a tight margin.
The Wildcats opened the second on an 11-0 run to take a 26-21 lead, with Williams scoring 10 of his team-high 21 in the period, but the teams went into halftime tied at 33. Dawson Vallerga’s individual 11-0 run gave the Tigers a 52-44 lead before Henry Dibble closed the third quarter with a three to get the hosts back within five.
Vallerga had a fascinating night, never scoring outside of the 11 points in a span of just over two minutes. He also had eight rebounds and eight assists. Lemke scored nine of his 13 in the first half and finished with seven assists.
Dibble scored 14 of his 17 in the second half for the Wildcats, while Theo Pontes finished with 14.
University 90, King 70
Considering how Cole Boake came out of the gates on Thursday, there was no way the University Red Devils were losing.
The senior guard scored 14 in the first quarter and went on to score a game-high 32 in University’s convincing 90-70 win over the King Wolves to advance to the Bambauer Classic semifinals for a second consecutive year.
University (9-3) only led 23-16 after a quarter, but blew the game open with a 26-11 second period to take a 22-point halftime lead. Sophomore Lucas Lau hit a 3-pointer to cap off an 8-0 run to put his team up 17, then registed a four-point play as part of a 10-0 run to make it 45-22.
Lau finished with 15 off the bench, while Gus Fried scored eight of his 14 in the third quarter. King (9-10) trailed just 57-42 after a Justin Brayard 3-pointer, but the Fried-to-Boake connection started an 11-2 run that buried the Wolves for good.
Gus Parsons added 10 in the victory, including eight in the first half. Sophomore guard Jeremiah Davis led the Wolves with 16 points, scoring 13 in the second half. Brayard scored 12 of his 14 across the final two quarters, and senior forward Mathias Tinker scored 13.
Urban 54, Archie Williams 51
The Urban Blues used both a bit of their present and a bit of the future to fend off a pesky Archie Williams side on Thursday afternoon.
Sophomore Mawa Silvestro hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 2:58 left, and Jake Rodriguez’s and-1 with 1:20 to go put Urban (9-3) up four as the Blues made up for their four-point loss to Ygnacio Valley 24 hours earlier.
Archie Williams (5-7) trailed just 52-51 after Owen Bugas’ 3-pointer with 45.2 left, but Owen Brown made two free throws with 27.5 left and forced a missed three as time expired to seal the win for the Blues.
Brown, a junior, scored 11 points. Silvestro had 12, while Rodriguez overcame a rare difficult shooting day to score a team-high 15.
Sophomore forward Brian Wright had a double-double in defeat, with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Bugas scored nine, while Julian Nichol and Grady Stewart each added seven. Wright scored off a Nichol assist with 3:55 let to give Archie Williams a 46-44 lead, but Silvestro tied the game off a Brown assist 30 seconds later, then hit the go-ahead three off another feed from Brown.
Vintage 70, Heritage 65
After seeing backcourt mate Brady Hearn suffer a head injury, Miles Macpherson took over.
The senior scored all 14 of his points in the second half, fueling a balanced attack as his Vintage Crushers fought off the Heritage Patriots, 70-65.
Seven different players scored between six and 14 points for Vintage (7-5). Si Sabbagha’s 3-pointer to close the third quarter put the Crushers up 48-45, and Noah Akkerman, who hadn’t played until Hearn’s injury, hit a three early in the fourth to make it 51-47.
Heritage (4-8) trailed just 54-53 after Lucas Daniel’s behind-the-back pass to Nate Grube, but Macpherson knocked down back-to-back threes in the ensuing moments to stretch the lead to seven. Bryce Beasley’s putback with 13.4 left made it a three-point game, but Vintage held on. The Crushers were awarded a timeout with 5.3 seconds left when it looked like the Patriots were about to be awarded a foul. Akkerman was fouled a second later, and while he only needed to make one of two free throws to ice the game, it became a moot point when a technical foul was assessed to a Heritage assistant coach.
Beasley led the Patriots with 14 points and 12 rebounds, while Austin Beltram scored 12. Sophomore Alvin Ella finished with 10, while Jace Bernard and Ryder Polvorosa each added eight. Bernard also picked up eight rebounds, but Heritage was hampered by a 16-of-27 (59.2%) showing at the line.
Jace Lopez finished with 13 points and seven assists in the win. He scored nine in the first half, then assisted on the first of Macpherson’s crucial back-to-back threes.
Central Catholic 51, Priory 41
Wesley Payne did it all for the Central Catholic Raiders on Thursday morning, with 21 points and 12 rebounds in a 51-41 victory over the Priory Panthers.
He scored 10 in the third quarter to stake Central Catholic (8-4) out to a 37-26 lead, then bookended a pair of Jordan Magana threes as part of a 10-0 fourth quarter run to extend the lead to 20.
Magana, a sophomore, finished with 14 points. Clemson baseball commit Tyler Wentworth scored nine of his 11 in the first half.
Priory (4-6) got 13 points from sophomore Noah Gallon and 11 from freshman Teddy Xanthopoulos.