Modesto Christian’s season ends in NorCal Open semis at hands of Salesian

Modesto Christian’s goal Saturday night against Salesian was to limit pick-sixes.

No, the Crusaders were not playing football. They were playing in their third boys basketball CIF Northern California Open Division Regional Semifinal in as many years, but the gameplan was similar to that of a team on the gridiron: minimize the turnovers that lead directly to points for the Pride.

The Crusaders were up against one of the toughest defenses in the state as Salesian College Preparatory allowed an average of just 46 points a game. During the postseason, the Richmond school tightened it up slightly, holding opponents to 43 points entering Saturday’s contest. The Pride are one of the top teams in the nation, entering the weekend at No. 22 in MaxPreps’ national rankings and No. 5 in California.

In the Open, Salesian was the top seed and was awarded a first-round bye. Modesto Christian earned a No. 5 seed and beat De La Salle earlier in the week on a Gavin Sykes buzzer beater to reach its third straight Open semifinal.

The Pride played their well-known pressure defense nearly all game. They threw different styles of full-court press at the Crusaders to slow down their offense that, over time, wore down the high-powered offense that entered the game scoring just under 70 points a contest. Salesian forced Modesto Christian into 18 turnovers.

Though the Crusaders made 8 threes in the game, they were unable to break through Salesian’s stingy defense, falling in the regional semifinals 64-52.

“We said from the beginning, if we don’t turn the ball over, I think we can win the basketball game and, unfortunately, we had 18 or 19 turnovers tonight. And in an open division game against teams that are this good, you cannot win games turning the ball over,” MC coach Brice Fantazia said. “We cut the turnovers in half, it’s probably a ballgame. That’s disappointing, but that’s what Salesian does to you.

“We had too many pick-sixes today.”

Modesto Christian (28-6) jumped out to an early lead after Myles Jones started the game with a pair of threes on assists from Jeremiah Bernard. The Crusaders opened up an 11-5 lead, their largest of the game, and were ahead 15-13 after a quarter.

Salesian forced a turnover and immediately converted it into a layup and a 20-19 lead with 4 minutes, 12 seconds left in the first half. The Pride a few possessions later connected on their first three of the contest to open a 23-19 advantage. With a minute to play in the half, guard Sykes tied the game at 27 apiece with a three, but Salesian ended the half on a 5-0 run to take a 32-27 halftime lead.

Salesian (30-1) answered a 4-0 Crusaders run with seven unanswered points of its own to take an eight-point third-quarter lead. The Crusaders’ deficit increased to 15 by the fourth quarter before they were able to cut it to eight with 36 seconds left.

“I’m proud of my guys,” Fantazia said. “We had some guys that have never been in this situation and they came ready to play.

“You win league, repeat as section champs, and I told them, you can’t judge the success of your season off of winning a state championship when you’re at the Open Division level. You win an Open Division state championship, you’re a top-five team in the country. So anytime you make the Open Division, you’ve had a heck of a season.”

Saturday night’s contest was a matchup between an experienced team and a relatively new squad.

Salesian is a unit paced by experience, and while the Pride earned their first Open Division playoff win in school history, the team has been together for at least two seasons. It returned a core of 10 players from last year’s team, which finished third in the North Coast Section Open Division playoffs and advanced to the Division I state NorCal championship.

The Pride didn’t look fazed by the moment as the top seed riding a 17-game win streak with a hungry Crusaders team looking to knock them off. Instead, the Salesian relied on fundamentals to break the game open in the second half.

“My hat’s off to Salesian,” Fantazia said. “They’re a bunch of seniors that know what their goal is this year. That’s one of the more ‘together’ teams I’ve seen in my coaching career. You can just tell there’s no egos, no ulterior motives, they just want to win.”

The Modesto Christian program has the most Open Division appearances and the most wins of any basketball team in the state, earning a spot in the toughest division in California high school basketball nine of the 11 years of its existence and winning 14 games. They have reached at least the semis each of the nine years.

But the Crusaders lost a lot of veterans to graduation last season and relied heavily on a new core that did not have much playoff experience at prior schools and had no experience in the Open.

They went into the Open playoffs with a chip on their shoulder and a belief in themselves that if they played the right way, they could knock off one of California’s best.

“I mean, let’s be real, nobody thought we were gonna be an Open caliber this year, losing all the seniors that we had last year and being as young as we are,” Fantazia said. “They heard the noise, too, and they came out and not only made the Open but got another open division win.”

Jones scored six of his 11 points in the game’s opening minutes and Sykes scored a game-high 15, with six coming in the fourth quarter. Ry Atkins provided a spark off the bench for the Crusaders after entering the game because of early foul trouble. He knocked down a corner three and converted a pair of layups for seven of the team’s 15 points. The 6-foot-7 forward also helped out with rebounding and providing an outlet when breaking the Pride’s press. Atkins, a transfer from Summerville High School, finished with 10 points.

“Ry stepped up, that’s huge. There’s a lot of kids that shrink in the moment of an Open Division game,” Fantazia said. “He just came out tonight like, ‘If I’m gonna go down, I’m gonna go down swinging,’ and he came ready to play.”

The loss marked the end of the road for five seniors. Reserves Judah Flores and Armon Naweed, who provided energy off the bench when they got in, and starters Marcus Washington, Dre’Von Johnson and Jeremiah Bernard. Washington had his best game to help lead the Crusaders to their third straight Sac-Joaquin Section banner with 21 points and eight rebounds. Johnson was an impactful interior defensive presence and provided energy on offense in his return to the team after not playing last season.

Bernard grew into his offensive role this season and will leave the Crusaders as the program’s first Division I three-peat champion, a NorCal champion and a NorCal runner-up. He also played in the Open Division state playoffs three straight years. When Bernard subbed out for the final time Saturday with seconds left in the game, he embraced each of his coaches before going down the line, high-fiving each teammate. A two-sport star, Bernard will play football at Cal Poly next year.

“It’s always weird when you lose somebody who’s been around for four years,” Fantazia said. “We’ve gone through this before, but it’s going to be weird not having him around. He left his mark on Modesto Christian basketball. He’s the type of kid that we’ll be talking about 10 years from now about how you should act when you’re wearing the Modesto Christian uniform.”

The team retains production from this year’s team, however, with five rotation players expected to return next season including the two leading scorers, Sykes and Jones, along with Atkins and 6-foot-4 freshman Elijah Payne, who knocked down a pair of fourth-quarter threes Saturday night.