St. Francis basketball snaps skid with playoff victory

BARSTOW — St. Francis High basketball had the distinction of owning the longest losing streak of any seeded team in the CIF Southern Section Division IV-AA boys basketball playoffs, having dropped 12 in a row entering Wednesday’s opening-round game at Barstow.

But the No. 10 Golden Knights took advantage of a favorable matchup against the sub-.500 Aztecs with three players scoring in double figures to secure a 58-45 victory, their first in nearly six weeks.

St. Francis (10-17) will play Friday at No. 8 JSerra (10-17), which halted an eight-game losing streak by defeating Hillcrest.

“When you’ve gone that long without one, you have to learn how to win all over again,” said St. Francis Coach Ray O’Brien, whose team last earned a victory Jan. 3 against Pacific Hills. “When they made their run [late in the third quarter], you either fold or you match it, and I thought we did a good job of responding to that challenge.”

Barstow (11-14) cut the deficit to 39-33 with 1:40 remaining in the third, but St. Francis answered with eight consecutive points, capped by a Michael Allen three-pointer, which gave them a 14-point advantage with six minutes left in the fourth.

Joey Walsh, who finished with 15 points and seven rebounds, and John Carroll hit back-to-back baskets to give the Golden Knights their biggest lead at 54-38 with 3:55 remaining.

“It feels like it’s been forever, but the last three games, we really pushed through and even though we didn’t win, we felt like we were where we needed to be heading into the playoffs,” Walsh said. “We knew our Mission League schedule would be a challenge. But competing against those teams helped our confidence because we knew we could play against anyone. This shows we still have fight left.”

Michael Ibarra had 11 points, eight rebounds and five steals, with Carroll coming off the bench to contribute 11 points and eight rebounds for St. Francis, which had lost its last four league games following the departure Feb. 2 of then co-coach Jeff Stephens, who said he was “burned out” after a 47-33 loss to Notre Dame.

“It’s tough losing once, let alone 12 in a row, but the Mission League is one of the toughest leagues in California and it was huge for us to play who we played to prepare us for the playoffs,” Carroll said. “This season tested all of our character, whether it was losing all those games or the coaching situation, it was tough to maintain hope and stay together.

“But throughout it all, we kept a positive mindset. This is a brand new season and it’s win or go home, so it’s that much more important to play well. The losing streak is behind us, now we want to go play well Friday and keep this thing going.”

Allen scored eight points and Kyle Cheung contributed seven points in the second half for the Golden Knights, who reached the Division III-A final last year.

“I’m proud of this team for sticking together,” Walsh said. “It’s going to be a great challenge against JSerra on Friday, but we’re looking forward to it. We feel like with this win, we can get on a run again like we did last year. We’re going to go down there and give it our all.”