St. Francis basketball stumbles to finish against Alemany
LA CAÑADA — Before preparing to petition for an at-large berth to advance to the CIF Southern Section Division IV-AA playoffs, the St. Francis High basketball team had a tall task in its regular season finale against talented Alemany on Wednesday night.
The Golden Knights looked to finish up on a winning streak and perhaps carry over a little momentum should they receive a postseason nod from the CIF Southern Section office when the pairings are released Sunday.
Unfortunately for St. Francis, it was unable to keep up with Alemany and suffered an 88-59 home defeat.
St. Francis (7-19, 3-9 in league) never led against Alemany (21-6, 11-1) and couldn’t stop Shaquille Dawkins and Earnie Sears III. Dawkins and Sears finished with 29 and 28 points, respectively, to help the Warriors clinch the league championship outright. The Warriors have won six straight games.
“It’s not a one-day process when you are competing against some of the top teams in this league,” said first-year St. Francis Coach Todd Wolfson, whose team is ranked 14th in Division IV-AA. “They came out and punched us early in the game and we made a comeback, but they just have a lot of talented players and experience.
“We just couldn’t really make any noise [after the first quarter]. You learn from it. Hopefully we will be in the playoffs and we can win some games. We have a young team, but we like the direction we are heading.”
Alemany, ranked second in the division, completed the two-game season sweep of St. Francis by jumping out to a 10-0 lead early in the first quarter. It held a 48-34 halftime advantage and led, 75-46, after three quarters.
Alemany’s mobile defense forced St. Francis to commit 19 turnovers.
Dawkins finished with five steals and five assists before being removed after the third quarter.
“It was similar to the first time we played them,” said Wolfson, whose team fell, 74-58, at Alemany on Jan. 22. “They got out to a lead and we tried to make a comeback.
“They just made a lot of big plays when they needed to.”
Brett Gangi provided the Golden Knights with a spark after making a three-pointer to end the first quarter and cut the deficit to 21-15.
Joey Walsh made a layup from the right side to pull the Golden Knights to within 34-28 with 3:38 left in the first half. Walsh finished the game with a team-high 17 points. He collected three three-pointers, all in the first half.
St. Francis’ John Stephens had 12 points and Gangi finished with seven.
