Trinity League: Mensah and Rodman pace upset of St. John Bosco
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO – As if they didn’t already grasp that bit of high school basketball fact, the St. John Bosco High players and coaches got a stern reminder Friday night as to just how tough the Trinity League is.
The visiting Braves took at 16-2 record into JSerra High’s gymnasium after winning its first four Trinity League games.
A few hours later they boarded their team bus north to Bellflower and their campus after being toppled by the host Lions, 59-44.
The result provided a speedbump on the Braves’ road to the CIF Southern Section’s Open Division playoff bracket and a possible dethroning of Mater Dei as the league champion.
Last week Matt Dunn-coached St. John Bosco snapped the Mater Dei Monarchs’ 69-game league winning streak (60-51) just two days before knocking off another Trinity League contender, Santa Margarita (75-70).
With Mater Dei (vs. Servite) and Santa Margarita (vs. Orange Lutheran) winning their Trinity affairs Friday night, the Braves and Monarchs share (at 4-1) at the midway point of league play, with Santa Margarita and JSerra (at 3-2) a game behind.
Trying to declare a “favorite” to win the league (outright or otherwise) with five games apiece still on tap is an iffy proposition at best.
Santa Margarita, though, does plays its next four league games on its Rancho Santa Margarita campus, with the Monarchs coming into the Eagles’ gym next Wednesday night.
JSerra (14-4 overall) made its first-ever appearance in the Open playoffs a year ago.
But the Lions had no eyebrow-raising victories (relative to catching the attention of the Southern Section’s Open Division selection and seeding committee; caveat: I’m a member) in November or December.
And it would have been understandable to feel tempted to push them into the bigger pile of “non-Open candidates” after the consecutive losses to Mater Dei and Santa Margarita.
Coach Zach Brogdon’s crew stomped all over that predisposition Friday night, though.
The Eagles continually beat the Braves off the dribble or to the glass, hitting 12 of 14 free throws in the second half (the visitors were just five of six for the game), including all eight of their attempts while pulling away down the stretch.
San Diego State-bound center Joel Mensah dominated pretty much all evening in and around the lane, finishing with 16 points (seven of the 11 from the floor and both of his free throws) to go with eight rebounds and three blocks.
Six-five junior D.J. Rodman (the son of you-know-who and a late fall transfer from Corona del Mar) scored 14 of his game-high 23 points in the second half (nine of 22 from the field, including three 3s) with six rebounds.
And senior guard J.T. Robinson, who spent his freshman and sophomore seasons at Santa Margarita, added the other 19 Lions’ points with five of 11 shooting from the field (including a 3) with all eight of his free throws.
Perimeter shooting – mostly deep perimeter shooting – was a staple in the Braves’ 16-2 start, notably in pre-Trinity League wins over Crespi and Rancho Christian (each an Open Division candidate of note) and then the Trinity victories against Mater Dei and St. John Bosco.
Eight of first nine converted field goals came from behind the arc but those were the only field goals they converted over the firs three quarters, after which they trailed, 38-34.
And they didn’t warm up at all over the final eight minutes, during which they were just five of 19 from the field with many of those misses stacking up as they began firing at an even more rapid clip that that they had over the first three quarters – which was pretty rapid, and less-than-accurate, too.
Juniors Jonathan Salazar and Fernando Gomez scored 15 and 12 points, respectively, as the Braves finished an unofficial 15 of 63 from the field (.238) – a percentage which won’t lead to victories in most leagues and certainly not in the Trinity League, for goodness sakes’ alive.