RIVERSIDE — The plan all along was for the ball to be in Chris Holland’s hands as the final seconds ticked off the clock.
But it took a missed shot for that to actually happen.
Holland grabbed an offensive rebound with 0.9 seconds remaining and floated an 8-footer into the basket as time expired as the Riverside Poly boys basketball team outlasted San Diego St. Augustine 68-67 in a CIF State Division II regional quarterfinal game Thursday night.
“Just the way we drew it up,” Poly coach Travis Showalter joked after the game.
The teams went back-and-forth in the second half, and Jaiden Bailes gave St. Augustine (19-15) the lead on a layup with about 20 seconds left to play.
St. Augustine, the San Diego Section’s Division 1 champion, had four fouls to give and was able to burn some time off the clock by using two of them up.
Riverside Poly (24-10) had three cracks on the final possession. James “Jrob” Croy’s 3-pointer drew iron, but the ball bounced off a St. Augustine player and remained with the Bears. Showalter called a timeout with 3.9 seconds left. The first option was to get the ball to Holland in the paint on a slip screen.
St. Augustine sniffed that out. So Croy inbounded the ball under the basket to Kam Dodson, who immediately flipped back to Croy for a corner 3-pointer. Croy’s attempt hit the front of the rim, but Holland collected the rebound and got that final shot out of his hand with 0.2 seconds remaining on the clock.
Holland, who ed a double-double with game-highs of 30 points and 13 rebounds. was mobbed by his teammates at the other end of the court.
“I knew I had to crash and get to the ball if Jrob’s shot didn’t go in,” Holland said. “I knew there wasn’t much time left. I had to get the ball up right away.”
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The top-seeded Bears have home-court advantage for the regional playoffs and host No. 5-seeded Bakersfield Christian (23-8) in the semifinals Saturday.
“We’ve been tough all year long,” Showalter said. “Usually that kind of score is not good for us. But credit to our guys for battling until the last second.”
Poly never trailed during the opening quarter Thursday, as Holland and Justyce Lucero combined to score 15 points to stake the Bears to a 15-11 lead. That advantage grew to nine points after Kory Dodson drained a 3-pointer and Holland scored on a putback during the early stages of the second period.
St. Augustine answered with a 12-3 run that knotted the score, and the Saints grabbed their first lead of the game on a basket by Anthony Etheridge.
Poly was trailing by one late in the half, but Croy knocked down a pair of 3-pointers in the final 28 seconds to give the Bears a 32-27 lead at halftime.
The teams combined to make 14 of 25 shots in a high-scoring third period. St. Augustine sharpshooter Lincoln Grogan scored two points in the first half, but he sank three 3-pointers in that quarter to keep the Saints in the game. Holland delivered plenty of responses, as he scored 12 points in the period.
The fourth quarter featured three tied scores and six lead changes, four of them coming in the final minute of the game, as the teams traded big shots.
“We talked about it all season, about playing through adversity and tough games like this one,” said Kory Dodson, who finished the night with 11 points. “When those moments come, we just have to uplift ourselves and each other. If we can keep doing that, we’ll get through whatever teams throw at us.”
Bailes scored 20 points to lead St. Augustine. Grogan and Etheridge scored 17 and 16 points, respectively, for the Saints.
Croy finished with 15 points and was responsible for half of Poly’s 10 3-pointers. Lucero added 12 points for the Bears.
