Second quarter run propels St. Augustine past San Ysidro, into Open Division championship
SAN DIEGO— For the fifth time in the past 10 years, St. Augustine will play for a San Diego Section Open Division championship.
The Saints, behind a balanced scoring effort from all five starters, raced past San Ysidro for an 83-67 victory on Wednesday night.
Trailing 28-26 in the second quarter, the Saints ended the first half on a 17-3 run to take a 43-31 lead into the locker room.
“I don’t think anything clicked,” senior forward Derrius Carter-Hollinger said. “I think we just started hitting our open shots. We’re more conditioned than them, we’re more conditioned than a lot of teams in San Diego actually so I don’t think any team in San Diego can keep up with us for four quarters and that kind of showed tonight.”
The Saints continued that momentum in the third quarter, expanding their lead to 65-44 after three quarters.
“As a team we all knew collectively that this was gonna be a crazy game, so we had been talking to each other to stay together and keep our composure the whole time,” Carter-Hollinger said.
Facing a San Ysidro team that entered having scored 80 points or more 17 times this season, the Saints had to walk a fine line between taking advantage of fastbreak opportunities and getting into a track meet with the Cougars.
“I think what we do is we just grind on you,” St. Augustine head coach Mike Haupt said. “We want your third or fourth guy to score and win it for you and Ty (Ingram) was great.”
Ingram, a freshman guard for San Ysidro, scored a game-high 31 points and knocked down eight three-pointers.
Memphis signees Mikey Williams and JJ Taylor were limited to 27 points and eight total field goals between the two.
“(Ty) had 15 of their 31 at half but obviously Mikey (Williams) and JJ (Taylor) are super talented, they were our focus,” Haupt said.
The Saints began the season as San Diego’s top team and now sit just one win away from going wire-to-wire and becoming the first team to repeat as champions in the 10-year history of the Open Division bracket.
“We never got satisfied,” Carter-Hollinger said of avoiding a slump this season. “We just stay hungry for whatever is in front of us, and we treat every game like we’re playing a top 25 team in the nation.”
The Saints have had the targets on their backs since day one of the season and have lost four times to out of section opponents this year, but they’ll enter Saturday’s Open Division championship game against Montgomery riding a 34-game winning streak against San Diego Section opponents.
“Honestly, I think it’s just a good group of seniors who lead,” Haupt said. “We have some young guys, but the seniors have not let us go away.”
