RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA – After Santa Margarita fell behind by eight points, it didn’t look as if the Eagles’ contest against Bishop Montgomery of Torrance would come down to the final shot.
However, that’s the situation the teams were in with 16.5 second left.
After several passes against a tough Bishop Montgomery defense, the Eagles’ Adrease Jackson fired a shot from the right side. The ball rattled in and out and stayed out, affording the third-seeded Knights to hold on for the 57-54 road victory Tuesday in the CIF-SS Open Division quarterfinals.
“We had a chance,” Santa Margarita coach Jeff Reinert said. “The play broke, then you have to make a play. Adrease had a good look at it, rattled in and out.”
Bishop Montgomery (25-2) will face Sierra Canyon of Chatsworth in the semifinals Friday at USC’s Galen Center. The game will start at 7 p.m.
Jackson led the Eagles (21-7) with 21 points.
The Knights led, 57-49, with 2:29 left in the game, but the Eagles didn’t go quietly.
“We started executing a little better and defending a little bit better,” Reinert said. “They’re such a hard team to guard because they all can bounce it. I was proud of my guys that they fought back. We put ourselves in a bad spot, we didn’t execute for a long period of the game.”
Jackson had a dunk, Jordan Guest made one of two free throws and Jackson made two more free throws to cut the score to 57-54. Bishop Montgomery then had a 10-second violation, giving the Eagles the ball with a chance to tie the score.
“I thought we defended well on that last play,” Bishop Montgomery coach Doug Mitchell said of the last-second attempt. “It was kind of a loose-ball scramble play, we gave up the shot, but I thought we defended well.
“Credit to them, I thought they did some good stuff, but I never thought we got into a real good flow offensively. Might have been Ethan Thompson’s worst game of the year … When it seemed like we would get into a flow and get a working margin, we would do things to put them back in the game.”
Thompson led the Knights with 21 points. David Singleton and Jordan Schakel had 14 and 10, respectively.
The Knights took a 48-41 lead into the fourth, but the Eagles opened with four consecutive free throws from Jackson. Moments later, after a Pearson Parker layup, the Knights responded with a basket from Singleton and 3-pointer from Thompson for 55-47 lead.
Bishop Montgomery now turns its attention to a rematch with Sierra Canyon.
“They beat us last year,” Mitchell said. “We’re going to have to play better. They’re a really talented team. I thought we played a little tight tonight, for whatever reason, so hopefully we’ll play a little looser and a little bit more free on Friday night.”
Contact the writer: dcalhoun@scng.com
