Stone Ridge Christian boys, Atwater girls knocked out of NorCal basketball playoffs
The Stone Ridge Christian boys basketball team’s 21-game winning streak and Northern California playoff run came to an end on Saturday night.
St. Bernard’s Liam Dyer poured in 21 points as the No. 3 seeded Crusaders defeated the No. 2 Knights 70-60 in the NorCal Division VI semifinals at Stone Ridge Christian.
It’s the second consecutive year the Knights (24-9) ended their season in the NorCal semifinals.
However, SRC had plenty to celebrate after overcoming a 3-8 start to the season to win back-to-back Sac-Joaquin Section championships and perfect 12-0 run to a Southern League title.
“I’m just super proud of them,” said Stone Ridge Christian coach Tyler Rogers. “This team has come a long way.”
The game was tight throughout, but the Crusaders (24-5), who came in ranked No. 1 in the state in Division VI by MaxPreps, used a couple runs to control the game.
St. Bernard’s ended the first half with a mini 7-1 run in the final 1 minute, 25 seconds to open up a 38-29 lead at the half.
“We knew it was going to be a game of runs,” Rogers said. “We had to limit theirs and that was one that got away from us. I think there was a couple missed defensive assignments and they got a couple second-chance tries.”
The Knights opened the second half with a 7-0 run to cut the lead to 38-36 with 5:06 left in the third quarter. SRC senior Kaiden Sahota scored four of his 13 points during that stretch.
However, the Crusaders answered with a 10-3 run as Dyer scored six points to help St. Bernard stretch the lead back to 50-41 late in the third quarter.
The Knights cut the lead to four points at 52-48 early in the fourth quarter, but that was as close as they could get.
Daijon O’Neil led SRC with 20 points and Cooper Trost added 11 points.
Crusaders point guard Prince Latimer overcame first-half foul trouble to finish with 17 points.
St. Bernard will face No. 1 Redding Christian in the NorCal championship on Tuesday.
Rogers expects a tougher road for Stone Ridge Christian next year with a possible move to Division V.
“We finished one game short of the state championship game,” Rogers said. “We did it with a new group, a younger group. Now we have to go do it in DV to get a three-peat next year.”
Girls basketball
Sierra Pacific 74, Atwater 63 — The No. 7-seeded Falcons (28-6) saw their remarkable run come to an end in the NorCal Division II quarterfinals on Thursday.
Atwater finally found a team in the Golden Bears (25-9) that could stand up the Falcons’ full-court press. Meanwhile, the Falcons struggled against Sierra Pacific’s full-court pressure.
Asla Jackson led the way for the Golden Bears with 25 points.
Karissa Hukill led Atwater with 24 points.
The Falcons celebrated their first Sac-Joaquin Section championship since 1988 and captured a share of their fifth consecutive Central California Conference championship this season.
