CIF boys Division IV basketball championship: Priory goes on 22-2 third quarter run to pull away from Fresno Christian.
CIF boys Division IV basketball championship: Priory goes on 22-2 third quarter run to pull away from Fresno Christian.
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SACRAMENTO – Everything was going right for Priory.
Mate Palotai and Balazs Nyikos had each made 3-pointers for Priory within a minute of one another, ripping the nets at Sacramento’s Golden 1 Center during the third quarter of the boys Division IV state title game Saturday.
In the midst of a 22-2 third quarter run that secured a 83-66 victory over Fresno Christian and cemented the Panther’s first state title, the three-ball was automatic for the Portola Valley-based Panthers.
So it was hard to blame a Fresno defender for selling out to stop Nyikos from getting the ball to a shooter the ball with two minutes left in the third, and for then allowing the guard to blow by him to the rim on a nifty-fake handoff.
On a night that started as an evenly-matched thriller, it all came together for the Panthers in a dominant second half.
After trailing 38-37 at halftime, Priory imposed its will on the glass and in the passing lanes. The Panthers had 26 second half points and scored a mind-blowing 33 points off turnovers.
“We saved our best for last defensively,” said Priory coach David Moseley, a former Stanford captain and a member of the school’s 1998 Final Four team.
Six Priory players scored in double-figures. Palotai and Nyikos scored 16 apiece, Teddy Xanthopoulos put in 15, Jai Gerrodette scored 13, Kasten Eggers put in 10 and sixth man Noah Gallon had 10 points.
“You can give the ball up, and know that it still might come back to you,” Gallon said. “At the end of the day, everybody is going to eat.”
When Fresno guard Aden Milwee made a 3-pointer with six minutes left in the third to put the Eagles up 48-42, the small school from the central valley went scoreless for the next four minutes as Priory embarked upon a 14-0 run.
Big man Xanathopoulos pounded the Eagles inside, and he credited a change in mentality for the team’s shift in form.
“We picked up our intensity a lot in that third quarter,” the forward said. “We picked up our intensity and our pace and our speed. That gave us some distance to put them away.”
Fresno Christian had success in the first half despite being dramatically outsized by 6-foot-6 Xanthopoulos and 6-8 Palotai, but had no answer for the Panther bigs in the final 16 minutes.
“It is hard to rebound when you’ve got 6-8, 230 and 6-6, 220 when our bigger guys are still in the one bill department,” Fresno coach Jon Penberthy said.
Priory led 64-50 after Gerrodette ended the third quarter with a buzzer-beating putback, and Fresno Christian never got closer than 11 in the fourth.
The victory was the capper on a magical run for Priory (26-6).
After it captured the CCS Division V title, took down Natomas, Berkeley and Santa Cruz in the NorCal bracket to chart its course to the state capital.
Now, Priory, which had other great teams come up short in the NorCal bracket, is a champion for the first time ever.
“Now, they’re the greatest team I’ve ever coached, and I’m very thankful for them,” Moseley said.
