Shalhevet’s Boys’ Basketball team suffered a heartbreaking 64–62 loss March 7 against the Bishop Diego Cardinals in Santa Barbara, after a heated double-overtime battle.
The Firehawks had reached the quarterfinals in the CIF Southern Section’s Division 6AA playoffs, a feat no sports team has accomplished in the history of the school. With a busload of Shalhevet students and faculty cheering wildly in the stands, the from epic game took place on the Cardinals’ home court.
The Cardinals’ overwhelming size and high pressure defense caused the Firehawks to travel, double-dribble, and foul excessively– atypical for the usually in control power team.
Nonetheless, Shalhevet held its own and maintained a lead for the majority of the game. The Firehawks led 29 – 25 at halftime, 42 – 36 after three quarters, and 48 – 46 with just 4.7 seconds left to play in regulation time. A layup by Bishop tied the score and sent the game into its first of two four-minute overtimes. No team led by more than 6 the entire game.
Both overtime periods were close throughout. Firehawks were ahead 59 – 57 with 6.3 seconds left to go in the first overtime. The Cardinals hit a layup with 2.8 seconds remaining. Forward Yossi Halpert made a half-court shot that hit the ceiling and missed, tying the game at 59 – 59 and sending it to overtime once again.
In the second overtime, Shalhevet scored just once, on a three-pointer by sophomore shooting guard Jojo Fallas just 15 seconds into the period. Bishop caught up and went ahead 62 -60 with a layup off of a missed free-throw, with just 3.6 seconds left in the game.
JoJo played the full 40 minutes and led the Firehawks in scoring with 29 points.
Yossi, the team’s captain, scored two game-changing threes, the second of which gave the Firehawks a 55 – 51 lead with a minute to go in regulation. Jon Dolgin, the only senior on the team, also hit multiple threes–his signature shot– in his final game as a Firehawk.
Size was a big factor. The top scorer for Bishop was No. 23, Elias Munoz. Jojo was guarding him, and he along with the rest of his team out-rebounded the Firehawks by a lot.
On one play, Munoz missed both of two freethrows, went in, got the rebound himself, and made the shot.
“Their defense had a lot of pressure on us,” said junior Josh Chowaiki, who watched from the stands. “They played a full-court press most of the game.”
More than 40 students, several teachers, and parents made the three-hour trek up the coast to Santa Barbara during rush-hour to catch the tipoff. The crowd was enthusiastically cheering as the Firehawks and Cardinals see-sawed within a couple of points for much of the game. Neither team led by more than six points at any point through the night.
“It was so exciting,” said freshman Scotty Silver. “I was nervous myself just watching the game.”
In another first for Shalhevet sports, the game was live-blogged on The Boiling Point’s website, www.shalhevetboilingpoint.com.
Editor-in-chief Zev Hurwitz and senior Daniel Aronowitz contributed to this story.
