WATSONVILLE—St. Francis High junior Sam Braun and his teammates had to wait an extra week to kick off their run in the Central Coast Section playoffs.
It probably felt just as long for the No. 4 seeded Sharks to close out Tuesday night’s 62-59 overtime victory over No. 5 Eastside College Prep in the Division V quarterfinals.
“That was a crazy one,” Braun said.
The standout forward finished with a team-best 25 points including five 3-pointers for the Sharks, who shot well from behind the arc except for the second half where they managed to make just three of their 11 three point shot attempts.
“Our shots just weren’t falling and we rely on those,” Braun said. “We were getting good looks, we just weren’t knocking them down.”
St. Francis coach Duncan Edwards was still pretty confident they would get the win, especially after taking an 18 point lead in the third quarter.
The Sharks were able to run different plays and Edwards believes they executed well on inbounds plays, while also overcoming a deep defensive press put on by the Panthers.
“Real pleased with this group, they’re just so intelligent and they bring it every night,” he said. “This is just a lot of fun for me.”
On the offensive side, the Sharks missed several shots down the stretch but Edwards didn’t mind the shot selection.
He was more concerned on the defensive end that gave up too many inside shots and allowed Eastside guard Santiago Hernandez to get some shots in, which was disappointing to Edwards.
The Sharks also nearly blew their large lead after the Panthers clawed their way back in the fourth quarter to force overtime.
“We hung in, we never hung our heads and we played hard the whole way through,” Edwards said. “And I think we played with confidence.”
Braun got things started for the Sharks with a pair of 3-pointers in the opening quarter and he continued to light up the scoreboard with 11 more in the second period.
St. Francis’ defense was also suffocating the Panthers and forced several turnovers that led to some transition points; and a 33-18 lead going into halftime.
Eastside looked much sharper and seemed to be the hungrier team coming out of the break. They fought for every loose ball and drove into the lane trying to get things moving on their end.
The Panthers pulled to within 10 points until Joseph Rose hit a 3-pointer just before the end of the third that gave the Sharks a 47-34 lead and the momentum, or at least it seemed like it.
Eastside wasn’t about to go away that easily, though. They went on a 9-2 run in the fourth and cut the Sharks’ lead down to 49-43 with a little more than four minutes left in the game.
The Panthers also did a better job of not allowing St. Francis to drive the ball in and kick it out to the wide open player for the shot.
“We wanted to drive, we want to get into the paint,” Edwards said. “Give them credit. They played hard, they played tough and it was hard to get in there.”
Hernandez delivered back-to-back three point shots for Eastside, which shortly later tied the score at 53-all to force overtime.
Going into the extra period, it seemed as if the Panthers had stolen all the momentum and were looking to steal the game from the Sharks on their own home court.
Braun noted that Eastside began to put on the pressure and the 1-3-1 zone they got into confused the Sharks, who had a hard time getting open looks and good passes.
“They just came out with some fire, we came out a little slow,” he said. “It’s late in CCS, they’re going to fight back. We weren’t ready for that, so next time we will be.”
Rose–who finished with 14 points–prevented any kind of comeback from the opposition after draining his fourth 3-pointer of the night. Braun followed up by making a pair of free throw attempts that put the game out of reach for the time being.
Eastside guard Isaiah Gates gave his team some life after getting fouled on a shot that was good. However, a lane violation negated the free throw attempt and the Sharks held on to a 62-59 win en route to Thursday night’s semifinals against top-seeded Priory High (21-3).
Priory has 6-foot-11 junior center Nes Emeneke and an array of other tall players who might pose as a problem for St. Francis unless it can figure something out during the film session.
“We’ll give anyone a good game,” Braun said.
Priory is ranked as the state’s top team in D-V and No. 3 in the CCS, according to the Max Preps website. The Sharks (18-7) are No. 68 in the CCS and No. 64 in the D-V state rankings.
“Can we beat Priory? If we’re hot, we beat Priory,” Edwards said. “We’ll just have to go see. We might get our butts kicked, you don’t know until you play the game.”
St. Francis will travel to Portola Valley to take on Priory on Thursday at 7pm.
CCS boys basketball scoreboard
• D-III: No. 3 Aptos 57, No. 6 South San Francisco 50
• D-IV: No. 11 Scotts Valley 58, No. 3 Menlo School 53
• D-V: No. 4 St. Francis 62, No. 5 Eastside 59 (OT)
