Boys’ basketball: Long Beach State signee leads St. Joseph Notre Dame to Division V title
Long Beach State Coach Dan Monson is in Sacramento this weekend to see if his four senior recruits can all win state championships, and the first title went to 6-foot-7 Temidayo Yussuf of Alameda St. Joseph Notre Dame. He scored 21 points and had 16 rebounds to lead the Pilots (33-2) to a 57-32 victory over Altadena Renaissance (24-8) in the Division V final at Sleep Train Arena.
“Hopefully, we can all come to Long Beach with a ring,” Yussuf said.
Renaissance was outscored, 13-0, in the second quarter and fell behind, 29-8, at halftime. The Wildcats went more than 14 minutes without scoring a basket and went more than 11 minutes without scoring a point.
Junior guard Marquise Mosley finished with 12 points for Renaissance, which was two of 18 from three-point range and made just 10 of 40 shots.
“We were a little tight,” Coach Sid Cooke said. “It was uncharacteristic, and once things didn’t go well, we got frustrated.”
It was the fifth state title for St. Joseph Notre Dame, which lost on a 30-foot shot at the buzzer in last season’s final. Coach Don Lippi said he burned a photo from that game on Friday morning after it served as season-long motivation to return to the final.
“I wanted to end today with a smile instead of a frown,” Yussuf said.
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