The562’s coverage of Long Beach Wilson Athletics is sponsored by Joel Bitonio, Class of 2009.
They picked the wrong night to start missing threes.
Wilson boys’ basketball ran into the defensive buzzsaw that is St. Bonaventure and lost 73-53 in the CIF Southern Section Division 4AA semifinals on Friday night.
St. Bonaventure has used its stout zone defense to grind out their playoff wins, and Wilson was the latest victim that couldn’t shoot over the Seraphs. The Bruins missed their first 12 shots from 3-point range while the visitors built a big lead and never looked back.
“We just couldn’t hit a shot to save our lives,” Wilson coach James Boykin said. “We got some pretty good looks that didn’t go in and it kind of snowballed. Then we started pressing to try and make everything.”
Sean Oliver scored a game-high 25 points for Wilson while fellow senior Keon Young scored 17 points. The Bruins only made two 3-pointers in the game and scored 24 of its 53 points from the free throw line. Wilson is the only St. Bonaventure playoff opponent to score more than 48 points.
St. Bonaventure used balanced scoring to dominate on the road as Dylan Benner and Jeremy Goodcase both scored 16 points. Mathew Wilson and Nico Macias both scored 14 points.
The game started slowly, just like St. Bonaventure wanted, and the visitors took a 12-4 lead on a Macias jumper. The Seraphs led 15-9 after the first quarter while Wilson missed six 3-point attempts in the first eight minutes.
“We came out so amped up and never recovered from it and played from behind the entire game,” Boykin said.
Wilson wanted to get the ball inside to open up shots from the perimeter, but the disciplined St. Bonaventure defense was able to keep the Bruins from getting any offensive rhythm by disrupting passing lanes.
Goodcase got comfortable in the corner and made a trio of 3-pointers to give the visitors a 32-19 lead at halftime.
Oliver got going in the second half when he scored 21 of his 25 points, but the Bruins couldn’t get the deficit to single digits.
St. Bonaventure advances to the CIF Championship next weekend. This was Wilson’s first CIF semifinal since 2008.
“I’m happy for these guys,” Boykin said. “It sucks right now because we just lost but we had a great year with 20+ wins. They fought hard through a lot of adversity with guys in and out all year. It was always next man up. They never wavered.”
Because of their quarterfinals win earlier this week, Wilson has qualified for the CIF State playoffs.
“We have more work to do,” Boykin said. “We already got the invitation to (CIF State) and we wanted to get the opportunity to win the CIF championship but we’re not done yet.”
The CIF State brackets will be released next weekend.
