HAYWARD — There was nothing easy about this game. Not in the first quarter when California surged to a quick 10-point lead. Not in the fourth quarter after Moreau Catholic opened a double-digit advantage itself.
But the home team met its objective.
When the final second rolled off the clock Tuesday night, second-seeded Moreau survived 71-69 to advance to the North Coast Section Division I final on Saturday against Clayton Valley Charter at Dublin High.
“They dug deep,” coach Frank Knight said. “That’s a show of character what happened. They could have given up, down 10. They kept fighting and kept digging and thinking about the next play. There was never a time in the locker room or the huddle where we thought we couldn’t win the game.”
Moreau, aiming to avoid a loss in this round for the second consecutive season, trailed the entire first half and well into the third quarter against a talented opponent before a flurry of blocks, dunks and clutch shooting turned the tide.
LeBrie Goudy-Lee, a senior wing, nearly brought the house down during the third-quarter surge when he made a spectacular block at one end, hustled up the court and finished strong at the other end to even the score 47-47.
Later, Joseph Cid buried a 3-pointer from the corner to put Moreau in front 52-50.
Then, as third-seeded California was trying to work the clock for the final shot of the quarter, Jesse Ybarra knocked the ball loose and it ended up in Kellen Hampton’s hands for a breakaway dunk that widened the margin to 54-50.
Bedlam.
“I was hyped,” said Hampton, who finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds. “But I couldn’t have done it without my teammates. They set up all my buckets for me.”
Cal tried again for the last shot of the period but lost the ball out of bounds with 1.5 seconds left.
Ybarra, a senior point guard, threw a long inbounds pass to Cid, who floated up a short jumper that went in as time expired.
The basket made it 56-50 going to the final period.
Moreau wasn’t finished.
Hampton began the fourth quarter with a three-point play — basket, foul, free throw — and then Goudy-Lee followed another block with a dunk to stretch the advantage to 61-50.
Goudy-Lee finished with 26 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks.
“LeBrie is one of the best kids I have ever coached,” Knight said. “He’s played varsity for me for four years. He bought in. He plays hard. He’s a leader.”
But on this night, no double-dight lead was safe, not even for the home team.
California chipped away at the deficit and had a shot to send the game to overtime when Moreau missed the second of two free-throw attempts with 16.2 seconds left, leaving the score 70-67.
But as the visitors tried to bring the ball up the court, Kevin Chapman stepped into a passing lane to make the game-saving steal for Moreau.
The Mariners made one more free throw with 9.8 seconds left to stretch the lead to four, then gave up an uncontested layup. With California out of timeouts, the Mariners let the final seconds tick off the clock without inbounding the ball.
“The second half they really came back and forced us to get a little too deliberate with our offense,” California coach Steve Ohlmeyer said. “Couldn’t get things going and those guys, to their credit, they kept fighting, man. Even though we got off to a really hot start, I think we got a little tired midway through the game and got into foul trouble, too.”
California had three players score in double figures: Amari Gray (20), Damarcus Collins (16) and Kellen Torrey (14).
Source: www.mercurynews.com