Warriors take 19-game win streak into semifinals
St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy sophomore guard Saul Anaya (No. 1) dribbles around a Hesperia defender in a CIF-SS D3 AA quarterfinal game, Tuesday February 14. PMA won, 66-41. (Photo by Jelissa Holder)
DOWNEY — Almost a year to the day, the St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy (PMA) Boys Basketball team saw its dream for a CIF Championship come to an end in the semifinals against Bishop Diego.
Fast forward a year, and the more experienced team is in the CIF-Southern Section Division 3 AA Semifinals again.
The difference is they are top-ranked, and the young team has grown by leaps and bounds and are riding a 19-game winning streak.
To get to the semifinals, the Warriors easily defeated visiting Hesperia, 66-41 in the quarterfinals Tuesday (February 14) to advance to Friday’s (Feb. 17) semifinals on the road at Buena of Ventura.
The Warriors also ran away with both first round and second round victories, defeating Alemany of Mission Hills (90-56) and Canyon of Canyon Country (79-43).
PMA will play Buena of Ventura (27-4), a 72-66 winner over Maranatha, for the chance to get to a CIF final.
“Our defense was fantastic (Wednesday),” PMA coach Donte Archie said. “It’s (semi’s) big for us. Last year we took down No. 5 Orangewood Academy in the quarters. We knew we beat a good team and it’s time for us to get over the hump (semi’s). It’s the same team as last year. Everybody’s excited.”
One big goal, besides advancing to the title game, is to eclipse the school record for wins with 29, which they achieved in their 2020 CIF championship year.
The current team is 27-4 and the 2020 team ended up after the state playoffs with a final record of 29-7.
“That team (2020) was senior heavy and were veterans and were an older team,” said Archie of the champs.
With the win over Hesperia (20-11) in the quarters, they seem to be on their way to that record.
Leading the way against Hesperia for the Warriors was 6-6 junior guard Tyrone Riley with a game-high 22 points. Riley also had two 3-pointers, 10 rebounds and three steals.
PMA sophomore forward Douglas Langford added 17 points, 13 rebounds (game high) and three blocks, while sophomore guard Tariq Bridges added 10 points (2 3’s). Junior forward Edmari Binion had nine points and six rebounds in his first game back.
Adding one 3-pointer each for PMA was sophomore guard Shaun Fonoimoana and senior guard Andrew Rivas and sophomore guard Emmanuel Gillam had a basket.
As a team, the Warriors connected for seven long-range baskets.
“We hit seven 3-pointers, which is pretty decent,” added Archie. “We try to average 10 per game.”
Leading the way for the Scorpions was junior forward Jessie Martinez with 16 points, while junior guard Anggulio Guerra had seven (1 3-pointer) points.
The unsung leader on defense for PMA was 5-8 sophomore Saul Anaya. Anaya, who didn’t score a point, hasn’t turned the ball over in the playoffs.
“He’s the leader on defense in these playoffs,” Archie said. “Saul started the engine. He stood next to their guard wherever he went, and he let him know that it was going to be that type of game.”
It was a back-and-forth game in the first quarter, with the Warriors stretching the lead out to eight points, 19-11, heading into the second quarter. Riley and Langford led with eight and six points, respectively.
“I knew it was going to be close in the first quarter,” Archie added. “We just knew they were eventually going to get tired. We knew what their strengths were – they like to run a lot off of sets.”
PMA, which defeated Hesperia on a buzzer-beater in mid-January on an inbounds lob basket by Riley, had “……a different energy in the second Hesperia game,” said Archie.
That energy was especially evident in the second quarter, as the Warriors outscored Hesperia, 17-7.
“We got out on a break and like to run and we just kept stopping (Hesperia) every time,” Archie said. “(Hesperia) would score one out of seven possessions and we would score four out of seven.”
The third quarter was more of the same for the Warriors, as they again scored 17 points and allowed only nine points on defense.
Langford led with seven points for the Warriors, as they continued to build on the double-digit lead, 53-27.
Hesperia outscored PMA, 14-13 in the final quarter, but it was all but over for the Scorpions.
Riley had three steals in the final quarter for the Warriors.
“A credit to Section 7 in Arizona, as we won the bracket,” added Archie, of the off-season program last summer. “They see now that this is the reason why we worked hard.”
Downey Girls Water Polo loses in semi’s
After a very successful season by the Downey Girls Water Polo team, it all ended with a close, 6-4 loss in the CIF-SS D2 Semifinals Wednesday (Feb. 15) to visiting Murrieta Valley.
The Vikings finished with an undefeated league title and an overall record of 24-3.