St Bernard's Boys Basketball Advances to State Playoffs after Claiming Division 5A Crown

The St Bernard’s Boys Basketball team advances to the state basketball tournament by virtue of its 60-56 victory over the Rancho Christian Eagles Saturday afternoon in the CIF Division 5A title game. The Vikings, seeded #5 will host #12 Middle College, the LA City Section Division 5 champions Wednesday night. Tipoff is 7pm.

Despite going winless in a very tough Del Rey league, the Vikings were nonetheless given an at-large bid to the playoffs where they won four consecutive games, including a 67-52 upset victory over top-seeded Bell-Jeff to reach the championship game.

“Honestly I believed we could be here all along,” St. Bernard coach Mitch Runco said. “We were overmatched in league, but it prepared us and made us better and I told the kids that as well and they believed it and played like it today. This is a dream come true for us, and to think just two years ago most of our games we were losing so bad they ran the clock and now we are hanging a banner in our gym, it’s hard to put it into words.”

The Vikings never trailed in the game leading by as much as nine points behind 15 points by Terrence Powell and Nathan Moore’s 12 points, 12 rebounds (11 offensive) performance. Robert Fuller also contributed 12 points, along with four assists and three rebounds.

“Nathan has been making big plays for us all year. He has been overshadowed because of all the talent in our league, but he is our captain, leader, and is like an assistant coach,” Runco said. “When I saw the clock turn to triple zeroes it was pure relief and my headache instantly went away.”

Rancho however didn’t go away easily. Trailing 29-24, the Eagles opened the second half on back to back baskets by Greg Walter and Trace Redfield to tie the game at 29-29. Rancho then put a little pressure on the Vikings, going on a 6-0 run trailing 58-50 behind four points by Redfield. However two free throws by Fuller in the waning seconds of the game sealed the championship.

Redfield led all scorers with 28 points and 11 rebounds. Walter added nine pints, six rebounds and five block shots, while Ja’mel McMahan chipped in seven points, four rebounds and three assists and two blocks for Rancho.

“I’m not surprised at all as I knew we had a good team and could win CIF,” Fuller said. “Our coach put us in the league he did for a reason and he told us to keep our heads up and stay focused. We came together during playoffs and good things happened.”