CIF State Basketball Tournament: NorCal scores, highlights, brackets, semifinal roundup (3-7-26)

SAN PABLO, California — From film alone, St. Ignatius boys basketball coach Jason Greenfield was asked if Salesian's juggernaut of a team reminded him of any team he's seen.

"Yes, Riordan," he said just before Saturday's showdown with the Pride at Contra Costa College. "Hopefully we'll come out with a different result."

Unfortunately for the Wildcats, it was more of the same. Just stickier.

Salesian, with a week off, clamped down on the super-shooting and effiecient Wildcats en route to a thorough and stingy 61-41 CIF Northern California Open Division victory Saturday night.

Fittingly, ironicially, predictably, the Pride, who held St. Ignatius to a season-low in points including only two points in the fourth quarter — on two free throws (0-for-13 from the field) — now face Riordan in the NorCal finals in San Francisco.

Riordan, which handed St. Ignatius three of its previous four losses on the season, had little trouble in the other semifinal game defeating Modesto Christian 86-60.

Salesian, which got 14 points from Carlton Perrilliat Jr. and 13 by Leon Powe Jr., hope to avenge a 64-57 season ending loss to Riordan last season in the NorCal playoffs. Riordan went on to win the NorCal championship before losing in the state finals to Roosevelt.

The previous season, Salesian eliminated Riordan 49-44 en route to a NorCal Open championship before losing in the 2024 state finals to Harvard-Westlake (50-45).

Riordan (28-1) is seeded No. 1 in this season's Open, and Salesian (28-3) is No. 2.

"I think this is the game that probaby everyone wanted to see," said Salesian coach Bill Mellis, who won his 696th game, making him the winningest active coach in Northern California. "I think in the back of everybody's mind, probably (Riordan's) too, this game was going to happen."

Remarkably, St. Ignatius and Salesian had never met before and after seeing the Pride in person the first time, he came away thinking it was a lot like facing Riordan, whoever those games were higher scoring (53-51, 100-95 and 73-51).

With three starters out with season-ending injuries over the last month, the Wildcats had to largely play and shoot lights out. It was the one thing that really stood out to Mellis heading into the game, comparing them to a prep version of the Golden State Warriors.

"I suppose they can shoot themselves out of game, but every time I watched them, they were shooting themselves into games or breezing to wins," Mellis said. "That's the scary part about them. You can get a lead on them and in seconds it's gone."

That never happened on Saturday.

"They were more annoying than Riordan," Greenfield said. "Their defense is suffocating right. They were taking away our DHOs or cuts. Just super physical, super athletic. They obviously made it hard on us. Unless you're knocking them down and putting them on their heels, we just couldn't do it."

Even down three starters, the Wildcats did it Wednesday in a 72-54 home win over Sheldon-Sacramento. But Saturday, they connected on just 13 of 43 shots (30%) and just 4 of 15 on 3s (31%). Nobody scored in double figures for the Wildcats, with leading season scorer Raymond Whitley, revealed after the game playing with a torn minescus, going for nine points, and Anthony D'Acquisto and Shawn Boquiren each chipping in eight.

Salesien's leading scorer and top player Elias Obenyah had an off scoring night himself with just two points, including none in the first half while taking one shot.

Obenyah, a Stanford commit, played more facilitator with six assists to go with 11 rebounds.

"He can do everything you need him to do," said Perrilliat. ""All the eyes are always on him. He knows that and he got everyone else involved."

A pair of three-pointers by Asante Johnson early opened things up for Perrilliat, a 6-5 senior who is headed to Sacramento State on a football scholarship. He looked like the best basketball player on the floor in the second quarter, driving for three tough interior buckets as the Pride opened up a 34-26 lead.

Boquiren drilled a couple of threes to keep St. Ignatius in striking range.

The third quarter was also largely even, with seven different Salesian players scoring, but the Pride put it away in the fourth, simply not allowing the Wildcats to get any good looks.

Perhaps the fatigue of playing short-handed finally caught up with St. Ignatius, which finished 25-5. The Wildcats also missed a lot of interior buckets. There appeared a lid on the bucket.

"It was a unit effort," Perrilliat said. "It took our scout team all week and our coaches. They got into us. They ran us up and dow the court. Our scout team did a phenominal job executiing plays and what they do and we just came out and executed as a team."

FULL CIF STATE BRACKETS

BOYS

GIRLS

CIF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA PLAYOFFS SATURDAY SCORES

No. 2 Redding Christian 52, No. 3 Forest Lake Christian 26

Tuesday’s final

No. 2 Redding Christian (29-3) at No. 1 Cornerstone Christian (26-7), 5 p.m.