East Central holds off O’Connor for first playoff win in at least five years

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With the game on the line Monday at South San, East Central senior forward Jeremy Jones was playing with house money.

As O’Connor brought the ball upcourt, trailing by one point with 16.4 seconds on the clock, Jones stuck to the ballhandler like glue. Then suddenly he made an aggressive move for the ball. When the first pounce didn’t free it, he struck again and suddenly was on a breakaway.

“We only had four fouls, so we had two to give,” the Rice University football signee said of his seventh steal. “There were only 16 seconds, so I had to go for it. That’s just what our coach told me to do. He told me to go for the steal.”

Twice earlier in the Class 5A bi-district game, he’d passed on potential dunk opportunities in favor of safe layups. This time, he was going for broke.

Jones rammed home the game-clinching dunk with 7.7 seconds on the clock. District 28-5A champion East Central (24-8) had secured its first postseason win in at least five year, 55-52, over O’Connor (18-13) at the Durbon Center.

“I had to dunk that,” Jones said. “I had to let them know we were going to win it right now.”

The Panthers had time for one final shot. The attempt shot past the rim and none other than Jones was there to collect the rebound. The six-foot-6 senior finished with 16 points, 10 rebounds and two blocked shots.

East Central didn’t trail in the last three quarters of its third consecutive victory and 13^th in 14 games, but O’Connor made it uncomfortably close for the Hornets after falling behind 23-15 at halftime.

“They hit a lot of shots,” Hornets senior point guard Ceddrick Ali said. “I knew my teammates were counting on me, so I gave it all I had. They shot the ball really well, so I had to find a way to step it up (defensively).”

O’Connor scored the last nine points in the third quarter, closing to 38-33 when post Josh Campos converted a three-point play. Panthers guard Chandler Kearns made a three-point shot less than a minute into the fourth quarter, cutting the Hornets lead to two.

Ali, who scored eight of his 12 points in the fourth quarter, scored off a rebound and hit a three-pointer from the right wing to hike the lead back to five points with 6:09 remaining. Another three from the 5-10 guard made it 43-38 with 3:34 to play.

“I just had confidence in my shot,” Ali said, “so I let it go.”

Hornets senior Albert Jimenez scored inside to rebuild a seven-point lead at the 2:53 mark.

The Panthers rallied with a 9-3 spurt that carried them into the final minute with a chance to win. A third three-pointer from Chandler Kearns was a crucial shot with little more than two minutes to play.

A driving layup from Kyle Massie (8 points, 4 steals) slashed East Central’s lead to 53-52 with 58.5 seconds on the clock. A free throw from Jimenez before Massie’s basket was responsible for the advantage.

Jones was fouled with 21.5 seconds, but missed the front end of a one-and-one. O’Connor came up with the rebound and called a timeout with 16.4 seconds left.

“Jeremy’s a good kid,” East Central coach Jeff Sweet said. “He was upset that he missed that free throw, and he wanted to make up for it.”

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