Buzzer-beater: Mitty edges Valley Christian on Isaac Turner’s 3-pointer
SAN JOSE — If you’re going to make one shot in a game, might as well make it a game-winner.
Sophomore Isaac Turner nailed a 3-pointer from the corner as time expired Tuesday, giving Archbishop Mitty a 56-54 win over Valley Christian in a West Catholic Athletic League opener.
“Every time we go hard in practice our coaches say, `You play hard and hustle, your shots are going to fall.’ And the shot fell at the right time,” Turner said.
“He’s a big-time player and that was a big-time shot right there,” Mitty coach Tim Kennedy said.
Turner’s shot provided an ending to a high-energy battle with multiple swings of momentum. Mitty’s pressure defense was a decisive factor at both the beginning and at the conclusion of the game.
The Monarchs forced six first-quarter turnovers and had a 15-7 lead shortly before the end of the quarter.
The second quarter was a totally different story. Valley Christian hit its first five shots, made 9 of 14 in the quarter and blitzed Mitty to a 25-6 tune, taking a 34-21 lead at the break. The Warriors closed the half on a 14-0 run with Bellarmine transfer Brayden Harris scoring the final 11 points.
“Brayden’s an elite scorer,” Valley Christian coach Colin Pfaff said. “He can score off the bounce, he can catch and shoot, he can score from mid-range. When he gets hot it’s get out of the way and let him stay in that zone.”
Valley was still up by 13 late in the third quarter before Mitty went on an 8-0 run to make it 43-38 heading to the fourth. Five of those points were scored by Grayson Jalal, who finished with a game-high 24 points.
A Justin Hampton 3-pointer put Valley up 49-40 midway through the fourth quarter. Jalal responded with a 3 and then Kennedy called for a full-court trap-press that turned the game around, contributing to five Valley Christian turnovers over the final three minutes.
Jalal’s 3 made it 49-43 and his putback cut Mitty’s deficit to two at 51-49. His two free throws with 26 seconds left gave Mitty its first lead since the second quarter, 53-52.
Harris was fouled with nine seconds to go and made both shots to put Valley back up by one. The Warriors took their final non-shooting foul with 5.7 seconds left. Mitty then in-bounded to Jalal who was double-teamed, but somehow got the ball through a forest thicket of arms along the baseline to Turner in the opposite corner.
“I don’t know what happened,” Jalal said. “I just grabbed that thing, went baseline and trusted my teammate. And the ball went in.”
The game was a coming-out party for Jalal, a 6-5 senior who, in addition to assisting on the game-winner, scored 16 of his team’s final 26 points.
“That’s a senior making senior plays, laying it out there,” Kennedy said. “He’s had some good games but he hasn’t put it all together. Today he really put it together on both ends of the floor.”
Caeden Hutcherson added 15 points for Mitty (8-3, 1-0).
Valley Christian (9-2, 0-1) came tantalizingly close to ending a long losing streak against Mitty. The last time the Warriors defeated the Monarchs was on Jan. 10, 2006. Mitty has won the last 45 in a row in the series.
“I told the guys they beat us by 20-plus points the last two years at Mitty,” Pfaff said. “For us to have a one-point lead on the final possession, I think that’s a major step. Now we have to close it out. That’s the next step and we’re really close. First and fourth quarters we got rattled a little bit, turned the ball over a lot. If we learn from that I think we can take the next step. I’m confident we can do it, we’ve got good players, we’ve got smart players, coachable. So as disappointed I am with the loss, there’s a part of me that’s super encouraged about the progress.”
Harris scored 14 and Hampton had 11 for Valley.
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In other WCAL openers, St. Ignatius beat Serra 57-43, Bellarmine had to hang on to top St. Francis 55-52 and No. 1 ranked Riordan blew out Sacred Heart Cathedral, 75-26.