WATSONVILLE — Ivo Lasich carried St. Francis to the door.
Chase Watkins kicked it down.
Lasich scored a season-high 14 points, Watkins poured in 22, including 10 in the final two minutes, and the top-seeded Sharks came back to beat the No. 8-seeded Argonaut Mustangs of Jackson, 69-62, on Saturday in the quarterfinals of the NorCal Division V state playoffs.
Lasich, a senior wing which head coach Ed Kelly has depended on for defense and rebounding off the bench, had the standing-room-only crowd chanting his name as he sunk four key 3-pointers, including three in the first half to buoy St. Francis (27-2) through its slow start, and Watkins sealed the come-from-behind win from the free-throw line.
The junior forward swished all six of his attempts from the charity stripe down the stretch and had a pair of big buckets to ensure the Sharks would advance to their first-ever NorCal semifinal.
St. Francis, a Central Coast Section champion for the first time since 2010, will host No. 5 Bentley of Lafayette on Tuesday at 7 p.m. with a spot in the D-V NorCal championship game on the line.
“That was a goal since the beginning of the year, just to keep moving on and to break the record as we did today,” said Lasich, who also had six big rebounds. “Although we didn’t have the best shooting performance, we really ground it out. Watkins, [Jason] Gallo, everyone did. It was a real team effort.”
And it had to be with Argonaut (23-9), which trampled No. 9 St. Bernard’s by 31 points on Wednesday to advance to Saturday’s quarterfinals, mirroring the Sharks’ every move.
The lead switched hands 11 times and neither team led by more than five points before the final seconds.
St. Francis went into the locker room up by one thanks to Lasich’s 3-pointer with 10 seconds left in the first half. But Argonaut grabbed the lead during the opening seconds of the third quarter and held the advantage until the early moments of the final stanza.
Watkins gave St. Francis a 58-56 lead with a pair of free throws at the 1:51-mark of the fourth quarter and put St. Francis up by five with a putback layup seconds later.
The Mustangs trimmed the lead to two with a 3-pointer from senior Andrew Hernandez but Watkins and Gallo made their free throws during the final seconds to seal arguably the biggest win in program history.
“Defensively we finally got a few stops and we rebounded the ball really well,” Kelly said of the final two minutes. “But it doesn’t really matter what happens in the final two minutes if Ivo doesn’t save us in the first half. There’s a senior who doesn’t want it to end. He came out and had the best night of his career when we really needed it.”
Lasich not only hit shots but hit them when the Sharks needed them the most.
He and Argonaut junior guard Jared Votaw dueled in the second quarter, as the two combined for seven 3-pointers in the frame.
Lasich led the Sharks at the half with 11 points and Votaw paced the Mustangs with 17. But St. Francis’s defense all but eliminated Votaw from the game in the second half, holding him to only two points over the final 16 minutes.
Argonaut head coach Jon Gilliam said Votaw’s absence after the intermission was not by design.

“Their defense, man, they took it to another level,” Gilliam said. “I knew they would. I’ve seen them on film. I’ve seen they have slow starts but that’s a special team. They can take it to another level. We were not able to answer the level they took it to in the fourth quarter and that was the difference in the game.”
Perhaps the Mustangs, runners-up in the Sac-Joaquin Section D-V playoffs, would have faired better against the Sharks’ final onslaught with sophomore forward Seth Tomczak in the lineup. The 6-foot-3 defensive specialist missed Saturday’s tilt because of a family wedding.
“He’d be my guy guarding [Watkins],” Gilliam said. “He looks just like [Watkins]. Doesn’t have the outside shot like him but he’s athletic. Not to take anything away from them, because they beat us and he wasn’t here and we played well without him.”
They played superbly, actually.
The Mustangs had the Sharks on their heels during the third quarter after Hernandez sliced through the defense for a layup to give them a five-point lead.
St. Francis entered the fourth quarter down three but senior guard Dominic Figueroa nailed a 3-pointer on the Sharks’ first possession to tie it up at 45-all.
The tug-of-war was on during the next few minutes, as the lead swapped hands five times in the fourth quarter. Gallo’s 3-point play with 3:11 left gave the Sharks a 56-53 lead and Watkins did the rest.
“Someone had to do it,” Watkins said. “I was feeling a little tired but we had to get this done. We were not losing at home tonight. We’re not ending our season. We live to fight another day.”
Gallo recorded a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds.
