The Blanchet bench celebrates a play in the Colton vs. Blanchet boy’s basketball game at Blanchet Catholic School in Salem on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016.
By some measures, No. 4-ranked Blanchet Catholic School’s upset of No. 3 Colton won’t mean a ton.
Yes, the win puts Blanchet into a tie with Colton for the lead of the PacWest Conference, but it probably won’t have many implications toward the state postseason.
What it does show is that the Cavaliers are legitimately among the best boys basketball teams in the state.
Blanchet started strong, answered every run in kind and never trailed in a 56-44 upset against the Vikings at home Tuesday night in a PacWest Conference game.
“Tonight we had a pretty simple game plan, we wanted to limit their 3’s and just take care of the basketball and just play smart,” Blanchet coach Scott Cantonwine said.
“I thought that every time they made a run, we answered it somehow. Every time we made a turnover, we created a turnover, fortunately got a stop on defense so consequently we had a good run.”
Blanchet (18-5) snaps the 11-game winning streak of Colton (20-3) and creates a tie with a 10-1 record for first place in the PacWest with each team having one conference game remaining.
“We just outplayed them this game, I think, and it’s a big exclamation point going into state and get us going before that,” said freshman RJ Veliz, who scored 14 points.
Blanchet played a tough nonconference schedule this season – all of the team’s five losses came to teams in the top five in the OSAA’s power rankings.
Beyond the conference standing implications, the Cavaliers’ win against Colton establishes the team among the state’s elite 3A teams.
“Obviously we had a pretty good schedule this year, and we knew that, we wanted that,” said senior Ben Bartch, who had 15 points. “And we felt like this one especially proved to each other who we are going into our league tournament and the state tournament and that kind of stuff.”
Colton won 58-50 when the teams played Jan. 19, but this time Blanchet tried something different defensively.
The Cavaliers started the game with a full-court press and transitioned to a zone defense in an attempt to limit the Vikings from 3-point range.
“We used that same zone against Salem Academy and it worked against them, too,” said senior Nate Cantonwine, who scored 15 points. “The goal against Salem Academy was to stop the shooters so why not do it tonight, too?”
David Anderson cheers for the Colton Vikings in the Colton vs. Blanchet boy’s basketball game at Blanchet Catholic School in Salem on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016.
Blanchet led 27-20 at halftime, but Colton got hot and Garrett Collins’ fast-break lay-in cut the Cavaliers’ lead to 27-25.
But every time in the second half that the Vikings cut into Blanchet’s lead, the Cavaliers answered.
Veliz and Harry Witwer-Dukes hit back-to-back 3-pointers and Blanchet led as much as 44-34 in the third quarter after a floater by Veliz.
The potent, experience backcourt of Cantonwine, Witwer-Dukes, Veliz and Nicholas Orlandini hit seven 3-pointers, including four in the third quarter.
“We have really experienced guys who play and I think coming down and just having confidence and just letting it fly, we knew that if they hit a 3 or had a lay-up or something, we knew we could come down and score,” senior Ryan Scanlan said. “We knew we could, we just had to get stops and build a lead.”
bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com, (503) 881-8545 or Twitter.com/bpoehler
Blanchet 56, Colton 44
Colton: Garrett Collins 11, Nation 10, Raasch 9, Basargin 8, Davis 2, Jones 2, Wallaert 2, Knott, Ryan. Totals 18 3-9 44.
Blanchet: Ben Bartch 15, Nate Cantonwine 15, Veliz 14, Scanlan 6, Witwer-Dukes 3, Orlandini 3, Collier. Totals 17 15-23 56.
|
COL |
9 |
11 |
15 |
9 |
— 44 |
|
BLA |
15 |
12 |
17 |
12 |
— 56 |
3-point goals: Colton 5 (Nation 2, Basargin, Collins, Raasch); Blanchet 7 (Cantonwine 3, Veliz 2, Witwer-Dukes).