St. Bernard Wins Big in Playoff Opener

The St. Bernard High boys' basketball team usually relies on its defense to win games. However, with the defense making more mistakes than head coach Reggie Morris wanted to see in his squad's first playoff game, St. Bernard had to rely on its offense in a 83-52 win against Vivian Webb of Claremont.

“Our defense was not as good as it should have been tonight,” Vikings senior guard Daniel Cordoba said. “Mostly, we had to outscore them. The high post was open almost every play. We were hitting a lot of three-point shots.”

Unseeded Webb (9-11) tried to slow the Vikings' transition game with a 2-3 zone in Wednesday's CIF Southern Section Division 5A playoff opener.

“We don’t like the 2-3 zone,” Cordoba said. “We like to move fast, and the 2-3 zone slows you down.”

The zone did bother the Vikings (20-7) initially, but at the end of the first quarter, they began hitting their shots, going on a 16-0 run.

“We like to work the ball in transition and push aggressively on defense,” sophomore guard Michael Garcia said. “Offense is not our thing. We play defense, and that leads to our offense. We don’t like to set up an offense.”

However, running an offense worked well against Webb's zone. The Vikings were able to move the ball around and find open looks on the outside. Though it struggled to get open shots in the paint, St. Bernard was always able to find an open shot on the way to its 13th straight victory.

The Vikings went on another big run in the third quarter, outscoring the Gauls 13-0 to end the quarter ahead 72-37. Garcia scored nine of his game-leading 26 points in that stretch. Cordoba added five of his seven, which were all scored in the third quarter.

“Anthony is as talented as anyone on our team,” Morris said. “He’s just got that immature 10th-grade thing going on. Tonight, he was focused on what he needed to do.”

Brandon Randolph also added an offensive spark, scoring 16 points.

However, Morris wasn’t impressed with the focus of his defense, which has been the team’s wheelhouse all season.

“This isn’t the defense we want to see at this point in the season,” Morris said. “There were a lot of mental lapses. We gave up a lot of layups early on.”

This resulted in a bright spot for the Gauls' offense: their inside game. Alex Creem led the way with 16 points and Kane Willis added 16, all in the paint.

The second-seeded Vikings can now look forward to Friday's second-round game against No. 16 Long Beach St. Anthony. Morris said he won’t be making any adjustments but would like to see a better defensive performance.

“I like the formula we’ve had all year,” Morris said. “Now is not the time to try anything new. I don’t coach against the other team. Our style is different from what a lot of teams play, so we just have to make sure to dictate the tempo and play fast.”