
NEWPORT BEACH – With 39 seconds remaining and the score tied, Northwood players had a clear idea of what they wanted to do even if it wasn’t what the coach had planned.
Northwood boys basketball coach Tony De La Cruz didn’t give it a second thought. He deferred to his players.
“I had a play drawn up and they said, ‘No, no, no, coach, give it to Justin. He’s being guarded by a small guy,’ ” De La Cruz recalled.
“I don’t care what we run, when the players show that leadership, I love it.”
Moments later, he loved it even more. Thirteen seconds after they broke the huddle, Northwood gave the ball to Justin Liu and he knew what to do. Spin move inside, lay the ball off the glass.
It was Northwood’s only basket over the final 4 1 / 2 minutes of the contest, but it was the difference as the third-seeded Timberwolves scored a 47-45 upset of second-seeded Sage Hill on Monday in the semifinal round of the Pacific Coast League tournament.
It was the first varsity victory over Sage Hill (14-8, 7-2) for these players, and it gives Northwood (14-9, 6-2) a chance to play for the PCL title on Wednesday against Irvine at Portola High. Top-seeded Irvine beat Woodbridge in the other semifinal, 42-40. Sage Hill will play Woodbridge for third place.
A three-year varsity player, Liu’s layup helped his team stave off a 12-point comeback by Sage Hill.
“It’s a shot I work on a bunch in practice, and in the flow of the moment, I tried to make a move,” Liu said after making the biggest shot of his life. “They had someone smaller guarding me in the post. I’m thankful to my teammates to trust me to make a play like that, and to my coach for trusting me with the game on the line.”
It was a phenomenal play that drew the admiration of losing coach D’Cean Bryant, who said Liu’s determination in the moment reflected the attitude his own team was lacking.
“That was all will,” he said. “The kid got the ball in the post and said, ‘I’m gonna catch the ball and score – what are you going to do about it?’
“They wanted it more than we did. … Hat’s off to them. They came in with an agenda and they executed it.”
Liu actually made two crucial shots. Back to back 3-pointers by Logan Barbee and Sam Alegre to open the second half gave Northwood a 34-22 lead with 6 minutes 9 seconds left in the quarter.
There wouldn’t be another Timberwolves basket for the next six minutes except for Liu’s 3-pointer from the top of the key with 1:04 left to go up 37-31. It wasn’t much, but it stopped the bleeding and the momentum. They limped into the fourth quarter with a 37-33 advantage, and it was 37-35 after Sage Hill’s James Karahalios scored from 17 feet just 18 seconds into the final period.
But Liu answered inside, Alegre scored on a putback, and Adrian Elemento scored underneath to extend the breathing room to 43-35 with 5:49 left.
Sage made a couple of free throws, and Barbee’s drive to the bucket made it 45-37 with 4:31 remaining. From then on, nothing for Northwood. Missed baskets, blocked shots and turnovers set the table for Sage’s Karahalios to hit a couple of 3-pointers, and Tolu Akomolafe’s nice left-handed basket off the glass with 1:27 remaining tied the score at 45-45.
Barbee was blocked on the Northwood end, and Akomolafe was errant from 8 feet with 46 seconds left on the Sage Hill half of the court. With the ball, Northwood called time out with 39 seconds left, which is when the Timberwolves players made their case for Liu. Thirteen seconds later, Liu scored.
Sage Hill called timeout with 8 seconds remaining to set up a potential game-winner. The Lightning got a shot – not the one they wanted, but a shot nevertheless – but Carson Ellis’ 3-pointer from the wing hit the rim with 1.2 seconds left and bounded sharply toward the corner.
That set off bedlam among the Northwood players.
Liu led the Timberwolves with 15 points, Barbee had 12, Alegre 9 and Elemento 8.
Karahalios led Sage Hill with 18 points, and Jackson Cryst added 10. De La Cruz credited Elemento for a bravura performance against the 6-foot-10 Cryst, who failed to dominate the boards like one might expect. Elemento, who gives away seven inches to Cryst, picked up his third foul with 1:58 left in the third quarter.
“We don’t have anyone who can match his height, but Elemento has some bulk, so I told him not to foul (Cryst) anymore,” De La Cruz said, adding that it was a pivotal element to the victory. “If you’re going to lean on him, don’t make it obvious.”
Cryst, a volleyball player committed to Long Beach State, jumps unlike anyone else in the league, but he scored only two free throws in the fourth quarter and finished with only a handful of rebounds for the game.
Sage Hill defeated beat the Timberwolves, 53-43, when they played earlier this season.
“You’d think, ‘No way does Northwood beat Sage,’ but it’s up to who wants it more,” said Bryant, who added a lack of execution – an unwillingness to do what it takes to win – as the determining factor.
“Northwood got the loose balls,” he said, “they dove on the floor early, they boxed out, they competed, they were scrappy, all the little things.
“When it comes to destiny, you don’t leave it in the hands of someone else.”
Northwood didn’t make that mistake. The Timberwolves knew exactly whose hands they wanted touching the ball. And then they made it happen.