Sobrato will settle to play in the third place game of its tournament after falling 61-51 to Brookside Christian Friday.
The Bulldogs fell victim to six 3-point shots from the Knights in the third quarter and never recovered.
Sobrato will now take on Hillsdale 6 p.m. Saturday.
The Bulldogs held their own against the bigger Brookside Christian team, taking a 28-23 lead at the half. That despite being out rebounded 21-14 in the first half.
Sobrato was held to six points in the third quarter while the Knights put up 25 to steal the momentum.
“I told our guys, we have to play four quarters,” said coach Lee Washington. “For our guys to play so good for stretches and then not be able to put it together for four full quarters, that’s what’s going to hurt those guys.”
Even after watching the Knights go on a 16-5 run followed by a 9-0 run, the Bulldogs were not out of the game.
“We knew they had a lot of shooters out there, and I thought we did a pretty good job except for that one little stretch,” Washington said. “Basketball is a game of runs. I think they made three 3s and that’s a big run.”
The Bulldogs opened the fourth quarter with a 10-2 scoring run behind the shooting of Kristian Maldia and Max Mosgrove, who had seven and six points, respectively.
Sobrato cut the deficit to six at 50-44 and a chance to twice cut it to four, but both times, the Bulldogs threw the ball away. They were the only two turnovers of the quarter and they were costly.
“When you’re in close games (and) close situations like that, you’ve got to revert to what the coaches have been telling you,” Washington said. “We start doing passes that are out of character for us and we warn against, so when guys start leaving their feet and trying to make passes, it’s not going to work for us.”
Brookside retook an eight-point lead and then simply outlasted Sobrato.
The Bulldogs cut the deficit to seven, but that was as close as they came.
Sobrato was forced into a foul game and Brookside responded with 5-of-9 from the line to go up by 13 with less than 10 seconds to play.
Dino Levic hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to make it a 10-point game.
Mosgrove led the team with 15 points, followed by Levic with 13 points. Tim Givens added eight points.
Karl Mann led the team with 11 boards, followed by Mosgrove with eight.
But neither could match the rebounding of Jashandeep Kahlon who had 14 boards or Edrico Oliver, Jr., who had 12.
“We’re an undersized team. We know that and we have to embrace that we’ve got to box out harder,” Washington said.
Sobrato will play Hillsdale Saturday. Hillsdale fell to Christopher in a second-half collapse earlier in the evening.
