Riordan finds groove in second half to beat SHP, moves within one win of CCS Open championship game

ATHERTON — Sacred Heart Prep threw the kitchen sink at Archbishop Riordan.

The Gators ran a zone, went man-to-man, pressed and even tried a half court trap just to try to defend Riordan’s high-powered offense.

But in the end it didn’t matter.

Despite a valiant effort, Riordan proved to be too much for SHP as it cruised to a 62-45 win on the road. The win moved the Crusaders to 2-0 in pool play of the CCS Open Division playoffs and set up a winner-take-all game against Serra on Wednesday for the right to go to the CCS Open championship game on Friday at Santa Clara University.

Zion Sensley led Riordan with 17 points and sophomore Andrew Hilman chipped in 13.

TJ O’Brien had 18 points for SHP in the loss.

“From the jump we came very prepared to do our job,” Sensley said. “We knew (SHP) was a great team that moved the ball well, so we had to prepare for that. We definitely executed on defense and we knew we had a step ahead on that side of the ball.”

Riordan came out sluggish early and the Gators took advantage.

SHP started the game on a 10–4 run sparked by quick ball movement and dribble handoffs. Riordan struggled to keep up with SHP’s backcourt duo of O’Brien and senior JP Kerrigan, who shredded the Crusaders’ perimeter defense.

“We definitely wanted to come out with a lot of energy,” said Kerrigan, who finished with 10 points. “We knew (Riordan) wanted to run, so we wanted to mitigate that by building an early cushion.”

Riordan’s offense started getting going in the second quarter with Hillman taking the reins as the team’s primary ball handler. Sparked by Hillman’s eight first-half points, Riordan went into halftime with a 33-21 lead.

Riordan used its size and athleticism to its advantage in the second half. The Crusaders outrebounded SHP 28-17 for the game with 16 of those rebounds coming in the second half.

Heading into the fourth period, the Gators trailed by a manageable 10 points, but Riordan saved its best offensive performance for last.

Sensley hit two of the game’s biggest shots to help Riordan break away.

The first shot was a step back 3-pointer to push Riordan’s lead to 13. The second happened on the ensuing possession, where he fired a contested 3-point shot that hit the bottom of the net while he was fouled. That gave Riordan a 51-36 lead with under six minutes left in the game.

“It was just a matter of time,” Riordan coach Joe Curtin said about Sensley’s fourth-quarter sequence. “We didn’t really get that game changing moment for a while, but we ended up getting it at the right time.”

Though Riordan is the No. 1 seed, the game was played at SHP because of a penalty put on the Crusaders for a fight against Inderkum-Sacramento in a California Interscholastic Federation NorCal Division I quarterfinal game last season. Though Riordan did not enjoy having to play its first two playoff games on the road, Curtin said there is some positive in the predicament.

“I kind of liked it, having to go on the road a little bit,” he said. “At this point we’re really just worried about what we can do.”

Monday’s win set up Wednesday’s game against Serra. The No. 4 seed Padres narrowly defeated Bellarmine 53-50 at home on Monday. The Riordan-Serra winner will play Mitty or St. Ignatius for the championship.