Normally, when a team outplays its opponent for three quarters, scores 24 points in the fourth quarter, and holds the opponent’s top player to just 10 points, a victory is in the cards. But on Tuesday night, it wasn’t meant to be for the Palo Alto Vikings as they ended their season with a devastating 52-47 loss to Archbishop Mitty in the CCS semifinals.
Playing from the behind the whole game, the defending state champs had their chances to pull off the comeback, something Paly fans unfairly have come to expect from their team. The boys’ basketball team played their hearts out, left everything on the court, and it just simply wasn’t enough to beat the more experienced and talented Monarchs.
The Monarchs (25-5) are ranked #1 in CCS and #8 in the state according to Maxpreps.com. Led by 6’9″ junior Drew Gordon, the Monarchs are expected to dominate the CCS tournament and finally take the crown after losing to the Vikings in the finals each of the last two years. Last year, the Vikings defeated the Monarchs again in the NorCal championship, 45-43, in a thrilling comeback win.
The Vikings (19-8) had won seven straight games, but faced their toughest test of the year with Mitty. With a revamped roster with very little experience, the Vikings could have very well had a rebuilding season, but head coach Peter Diepenbrock saw something unique in his group of players.
“We didn’t know what we were going to have at the start of the season,” Diepenbrock said. “And to be in it at the end against a team like Mitty, that’s special.”
The Vikings began the game knowing they had to stop Gordon, but that meant leaving opportunities for junior Collin Chiverton, who burned the Vikings for six quick points in the first quarter. The Vikings stayed close with junior Dom Powell matching Chiverton six first quarter points and the Vikings the quarter down 13-12. It was a far better outcome than the 20-6 beating handed to the Vikings in the first quarter by the Monarchs in last year’s NorCal title game.
The second quarter saw the Vikings make only 4 of 8 from the foul line as the Monarchs extended their lead. The Vikings were down eight with 5.8 seconds left in the half when the assistant coach for Mitty was given a technical foul for arguing a call. Junior Mike Scott hit only one of the two free throws, but then drained a buzzer-beater three-pointer to cut the halftime lead to 25-21.
The third quarter is typically when the Vikings make their stand and put teams away, but just the opposite happened on Tuesday. Neither team scored for over four minutes, but the Vikings managed only one shot. Finally, the Monarchs broke through when Chiverton drove the baseline and dunked. Before the cheers had subsided, Senior Christian Bakken’s inbound was intercepted and put back for another two Monarch points. It took most people a few seconds to comprehend what had happened, but all that mattered was the Monarchs now had the 29-21 lead. Powell finally put the Vikings on the board, but the damage was done and by quarter’s end, the four-point lead had ballooned to 11 at 34-23.
The Vikings needed another fourth quarter comeback and if anyone could lead them to it, it was Scott, who has developed a habit of taking over games in the fourth quarter. The Vikings started off well, scoring six straight points, but the Vikings offense, as was the case all game, took almost the entire 35 second shot clock every possession, meaning that time was now a factor. Down only four points, the comeback seemed possible, even likely, but Mitty senior Kevin Toth drained a three-pointer, killing all the momentum of the run.
The Vikings had enough left in them for one final push, and down 44-36 with 90 seconds left, it was time to see if that push would be enough. Junior Connor Baskauskas came off the bench cold, but caught the ball in the corner and hit nothing but twine, cutting the lead to five.
“I was really happy for Connor,” Diepenbrock said. “He does it everyday in practice, so it was nice to see him do it a game, and in one as important as this one.”
After an exchange of free throws and a Monarch turnover, two Scott free throws cut the lead to three at 47-44 with less than 30 seconds left.
Somehow the Vikings had possession with a chance to tie the game when it seemed impossible just a minute earlier. Baskauskas, still in the game for his range, did not see a wide open senior Paul Reamey, but instead made a poor pass that Scott could not handle. The Monarchs took possession and made their free throws. Scott cut the lead to three again at 50-47 with three free throws, but the Monarchs sealed the victory with two final free throws to end the game at 52-47, and with it, the Viking’s season.
The Vikings came so close to pulling it off, but it just didn’t happen. The Vikings did their job; they held Gordon to just 10 points, but Chiverton had 19. Scott, as always, took over in the second half, scoring 16 points in the final quarter, giving him a game-high 24 points.
“Some players just rise to the occasion went it matters most,” Diepenbrock said. “He [Scott] did it in football and it obviously carried over.”
Though devastating to come so close and lose in the end, the Vikings have so much to be proud of in this game and this season. Many expected the Vikings to lose early in the playoffs, if they even made it at all, and even fewer expected them to give the Monarchs a fight. But most people seem to forget that the Vikings and Diepenbrock never go down without a fight, regardless of who is on the roster.
It was supposed to be a rebuilding year. The Vikings were supposed to pack it in and try again next year. With a year like this and a returning core of players led by Powell and Scott, the Vikings have an awful lot to build on top of next year. The last time that the Vikings had a young team go deep in the playoffs only to lose was two years ago. The next year, the core of that team returned and well, they did pretty well that year and there’s a state title banner hanging in the Paly gym to prove it.