By Corey Kwok
(Monrovia)- Daniel Hamilton’s banker from up top with 1.8 seconds left lifted St John Bosco past Pasadena 53-51 in a CIF State Division 3 Southern California semifinal Tuesday night at Monrovia High School’s Don Montgomery Sports Center.
The Bulldogs forced 11 turnovers to start the half and appeared to have an upper hand early, leading 14-4 with 3:21 left in the first stanza, but the Braves closed out on a 10-2 run to shrink Pasadena’s advantage to two at period’s end.
PHS clung to a 29-27 lead at halftime as both teams drew 13s in the second quarter. Blake Hamilton scored off John John Haywood’s assist to make it 31-27, but Pasadena would never maintain the lead afterwards as St John Bosco erupted a 13-0 run. At the apex of it was a steal-and-dunk by Isaac Hamilton (who, along with fellow SJB player and brother Daniel Hamilton, are first cousins to PHS’ Blake) that made it a nine point, 40-31 Bosco ball game.
Pasadena, refusing to implode, clawed back into the fray, trailing 38-42 at the end of three with Avo Yetenekyan, Blake Hamilton, and Ajon Efferson all hitting jumpers inside the final 1:30 of the frame. The Bulldogs battled back to tie it at 51-all with 41 seconds left to play with Hamilton’s putback, but SJB eventually prevailed in the end with Daniel Hamilton’s game winner.
Blake Hamilton led all scorers in his final PHS and high school game with 22 points and 11 rebounds. Efferson poured in 4 assists and dropped all of his 10 points in the last half. Brandon Jolley sat out a majority of the third because of foul trouble and yielded only a free throw after halftime, ending with 9 points and 6 boards. The Bulldogs’ biggest impediment tonight was at the rack, haunted by 20 missed layups.
The Hamiltons of St John Bosco , Isaac and Daniel, marked up 13 and 16 points, respectively, to lead the Braves, who received excellent attack offense from Darryl Matthews and a pair of big treys by off-the-bench point guard Juwan Thomas.
PHS ends their brilliant campaign to the 2011-2012 season with a 27-7* mark, a march to the elite eight of CIF State D3, and a CIFSS 3AAA crown.
*record after Muir forfeits. On court is 26-8.
Leave a Reply