Bulldogs win second-round playoff 61-44 Thursday
MORGAN HILL — Going into the Central Coast Section playoff meeting, Sobrato may have been the only team looking forward to a possible meeting with Archbishop Mitty.
Though the Monarchs (17-9) are down this year by their standards, having placed fourth in the West Catholic Athletic League, Mitty is still regarded as one of the strongest boys basketball programs in California. Last season, the Monarchs lost by one to Gunn in the Division II semifinals. In 2008, they played for a state title, falling 65-53 to Mater Dei in the finals.
That same year, Mitty freshman Pierre Hemphill and sophomores Bryan and Chris Bradley transferred to Sobrato — which they helped guide to a Santa Teresa Division championship this winter under coach Lee Washington, a Mitty alumnus.
Last Saturday, Bryan Bradley was disappointed at first when the Bulldogs were denied a top four seed that would have given them byes through the first two rounds of the Division II sectional. The senior guard cheered up, though, when Sobrato was listed No. 7 — a win away from playing No. 2 Mitty in the quarterfinals.
“That motivated us big time for this week,” he said after the Bulldogs trounced No. 15 Woodside 61-44 in the second round Thursday. “I’ve been wanting to play them since we lost at CCS last year. We didn’t get the opportunity to play them, and I definitely wanted the opportunity this year in CCS. I want to play them.”
That was more than enough motivation for the Bulldogs (19-6) to go all out against their visitors from the Peninsula Athletic League Ocean Division. The Wildcats (15-13) were coming off a 57-54 upset victory over No. 10 Gunn in which they rallied from 16 points down to force overtime.
Sobrato led 17-4 after the first quarter, getting two 3-pointers by Bryan Bradley and one from Ryan Williams, and kept the pedal down the rest of the way.
“That’s how we play. We don’t like stopping for anything,” Williams said. “We want to play the entire game like we always do.”
The emotion of playing their final game in the Sobrato Main Gym brought out the best in some of the graduating Bulldogs.
Williams, a 6-foot-4 forward scored a game-high 15 points; Howard Kwong netted 14 on 6-for-6 shooting in the paint; Kenny Mounteer came off the bench to match Bryan Bradley with six points, and Chris Bradley helped limit Woodside standouts Jason Chandler (16.1 points per game going in) and Jordan Rubin (10.7 points, six rebounds) to half a dozen points combined through the first three quarters.
Chandler finished with 11, and Rubin scored 10.
“No one gets an easy look when they step onto the floor with us. We take pride in our pressure, man-to-man defense,” Washington said. “(Rubin) is one of their best athletes; he just didn’t get enough touches. We put him up against our best defenders.”
That included Hemphill, whose two early fouls drawn while guarding Rubin took little away from a stellar night. Hemphill made two steals under the rim for easy layins on the way to totaling 11 points and six rebounds.
The 6-foot junior guard scored seven points in the third quarter, including two elegant scoop shots, after the Bulldogs led 32-12 at halftime.
“We still have a lot of areas to improve on before Mitty,” Hemphill said. “That definitely motivated us, but we knew we couldn’t get there unless we won this one first.”
Even Williams is hungry to face the Monarchs. Sobrato had a long shot of doing so last year as a No. 14 seed but fell 64-44 in the first round to Palo Alto. Mitty, then a No. 2 seed, lost in the championship game to No. 1 St. Francis, this year’s top seed as well.
“We just want to show that we can play with that top level of competition. I know it means a lot to coach, and Chris, and Bryan and Pierre,” said Williams, who played on the same team with the Bradley twins and senior teammate Charley Bynum at Britton Middle School. “We haven’t faced someone like Mitty in a long time. For us to have looked ahead would have been stupid tonight. We had to take care of business at home.”
With his team leading 46-21 but looking slightly lethargic, Washington called a full timeout six minutes into the third quarter.
“We treated this game as if it were a regular-season game,” the first-year coach said. “We kept things casual the whole way. This is exactly the kind of send-off I wanted for the seniors.”
Sobrato took its biggest lead, 53-28, when Bynum dished low to Scott Taylor for a layup with 7:01 remaining.
“We know they’re a comeback team, so we had to take it to them the whole night,” Bryan Bradley said.
Winners in 15 of their last 16 games, the Bulldogs will try for their first CCS semifinal berth in program history at 2:45 p.m. Saturday at Foothill College. They have reached the quarterfinals twice.
Sobrato or Mitty will play the No. 3 Palo Alto-No. 6 Los Altos winner Tuesday.
“It’s a special game for me and for them,” Washington said. “Mitty is a great team; they’re the number-two seed for a reason. But they have to be ready for us, too.”
