By Kevin Askeland
MaxPreps.com
SAN LUIS OBISPO – The Bishop Montgomery Knights might have been the Rodney Dangerfield of the Mission Prep Classic this weekend, but that didn’t stop them from capturing the tournament championship with a 65-58 win over Bishop O’Connell on Tuesday.
Coach Doug Mitchell has built one of the top Division 3 programs in the state in his 20 years at Bishop Montgomery, claiming back-to-back state championships in 2000 and 2001. However the blog that provided tournament results and gave daily predictions on upcoming tournament games didn’t see the Knights as one of the favorites in this year’s tournament.
“We were picked to lose every game,” laughed Mitchell. “So of course I played that up for what it was worth. But I felt confident coming in that we would do well and hopefully winning this tournament will give us confidence for the rest of the season.”
The Knights were tied with Bishop O’Connell, which traveled from Arlington, Va., at 44-44 heading into the fourth quarter. However Bishop Montgomery began to find its range from the three-point arc and it made its free throws down the stretch to stave off an O’Connell comeback.
“We made our shots in the fourth quarter,” said Mitchell. “We got some good looks from the 3-point line and we were able to drive the ball.”
Leading by just one point, 49-48, Bishop Montgomery got a 3-pointer from Michael Panaggio. Brandon Bivens followed with a three of his own and Justin Cobbs, Richard Solomon and Panaggio all added driving layups to put the Knights ahead 61-51.
Although O’Connell scored the next seven points, Cobbs made four free throws in the final 26 seconds to seal the win.
Cobbs, the tournament MVP, finished with 23 points while Panaggio added 16. Kendall Marshall, who is headed to North Carolina next year, led O’Connell with 19 including nine in the fourth quarter.
“We beat three good teams here,” said Mitchell. “Hopefully playing that type of competition will help us down the road.”
One of the teams Bishop Montgomery beat was Taft, which bounced back to defeat Campbell Hall 55-46 in the third place game.
The Toreadors built a 47-35 lead by the end of the third period behind the play of Michael Williams and Justin Hawkins. Williams had 17 points through three quarters of play while Hawkins added 13.
However Taft nearly saw that lead disappear in the fourth quarter. The Vikings scored seven straight points to cut the Taft lead to 47-42. Spencer Dinwiddie scored Taft’s first points of the fourth period on a 3-pointer from the corner with 1:10 left in the game to put Taft ahead 50-42.
Forced to foul, Campbell Hall managed just four points the rest of the way with the Toreadors connecting on five free throws in the final 26 seconds.
Williams finished with 17 points while Hawkins had 16. James Johnson led the Vikings with 13 points. Campbell Hall had won 21 games in a row prior to this weekend, but has now lost two straight to fall to 6-2 on the season.
Sylmar outscored Sheldon 15-5 over the final four minutes to take a 71-61 win in the consolation finals. Tramiane Moore scored for the Huskies to tie the game at 56-56, but Cory Lee kicked off the final run by the Spartans with a layup, Gary Ricks shot a short jumper, Joshua Toms hit a 3-pointer and Tyler Honeycutt had a dunk to put Sylmar up 65-58.
Sheldon was able to cut the lead back down to 65-60, but Sylmar scored the final six points of the game to pull away.
Honeycutt had 14 points, including four dunks. Ricks added 13 points and Toms scored 12 for the Spartans. Darius Nelson had 20 points for the Huskies.
Kentwood of Covington, Wash., rallied in the fourth quarter to defeat Los Osos 51-49 in the seventh place game. Trailing 43-37 heading into the final eight minutes, the Conquerors got a three-pointer from Mikelle Everette and a pair of rim-rattling dunks from 6-foot-10 center Josh Smith to take a 46-45 lead.
Jordan Retz’s 3-pointer in the final minute sealed the game for Kentwood, although Los Osos was able to cut it close with four free throws in the final minute.
Smith led the Conquerors with 18 points, 13 rebounds, six blocked shots and four dunks. Kendall Williams led Los Osos with 19 points.
In the Elite Division championship game, Rio Americano topped Fremont 62-46 while El Dorado of Las Vegas whipped LACES 86-43 in the third place game. Campolindo topped host Mission Prep 64-43 in the consolation final and St. Joseph’s of Santa Maria topped Mission Hills 48-39 in the seventh place game.
