PLAYA DEL REY The St. Bernard boys basketball team looked to be in complete control of Tuesday’s CIF Southern Section Division 1 quarterfinal playoff game against Chaminade.
The Vikings finished the first half on a 16-4 run to take a 13-point halftime lead.
Chaminade (17-3) had an emotional halftime meeting and came out fired up in the second half and rode Colorado commit Kenneth Simpson, who scored 16 of his game-high 26 points in the second half, to stun St. Bernard 72-68.
Simpson scored 10 of the Eagles’ final 15 points.
St. Bernard sophomore Tyler Rollison had a chance to tie the game in the final seconds, but his lay-up rolled off the rim and Simpson sealed the game with two foul shots with 3.6 to play. Chaminade outscored St. Bernard by 14 in the fourth quarter and will advance to Friday’s semifinal to play Bishop Montgomery.
“We kind of blew up at each other at the half and when we got outside, but we got everyone back together quickly,” Chaminade coach Bryan Cantwell said. “In the second half we came together as a team and it was great.”
Chaminade got going quickly in the second half going on a 13-4 run. A Keith Higgins 3-pointer and a Simpson lay-up brought Chaminade within four at 47-43 4:25 to play in the third.
St. Bernard answered with a run of its own outscoring the Eagles 9-2 over the next three minutes and thanks to a Rayneil Wright 3-pointer with 45 seconds remaining, the Vikings had rebuilt a double-digit advantage, 56-45.
Chaminade kept coming in the fourth quarter, going on a 14-1 run to take its first lead (58-57) on a lay-up Simpson. Senior Colin Weems capped the run with a deep three to make 61-57 with 4:40 to play.
“We were kind of hanging our heads going into halftime. The guys started going at each other, but that’s just the competitive spirit we needed,” Simpson said. “We all want to win and we all have that fighting spirit. So once we came out (in the second half) we knew we had to pick up our energy, especially on defense. Once we picked it up on defense it led to our offense and the game took care of itself.”
St. Bernard wasn’t done.
The Vikings scored the next five points, retaking the lead 62-61 with 3:45 to play. But Simpson would not be denied as the senior scored the next six points, on a deep three-pointer and then a three-point play to put Chaminade up for good 67-63 with 1:50 to play.
Five points by Rice University commit Damion McDowell cut the Eagles lead to one with 31 seconds left, giving St. Bernard one final chance, but the Chaminade defense held strong.
“No one believed that we would go this far this season,” said Rollison who scored a team-high 21 points. “I’m proud of my team for how well we played this season. We just came up a little short tonight. This one hurts a lot, but we will back next year and we are going to win it all.”
St. Bernard head coach Jason Porter was optimistic despite the outcome.
“We had an incredible season. We won a league title which no one expected us to do. It’s a great year for us to build on,” Porter said. “We have a lot of things that we need to work on. They were the better guys tonight unfortunately. We let some things slip on our responsibilities toward the end. They had two guys who wanted it more than us tonight (Simpson and Higgins).”
Higgins ended up with 18 points and 10 rebounds for Chaminade.
McDowell finished with 14 points and nine rebounds in a losing effort for St. Bernard.
