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When San Diego City College men’s basketball beat the Allan Hancock College Bulldogs earlier this season, Knights’ forward Alex Crawford was out with a back injury.
“They don’t know what’s about to hit them,” Knights’ head coach Mitch Charlens said this week.
It may have taken 43 minutes and 38 seconds to feel it, but what hit them was a Crawford step-back 3-point shot with 1:22 left in overtime.
Crawford’s three, along with his steals on two successive plays in overtime and clutch free throws by teammate Al Green, lifted the Knights to a 64-61 victory over the Bulldogs in a California Community College Athletic Association south region final before a boisterous home crowd at Harry West Gym on Saturday.
The win punched the Knights’ ticket to the 3C2A state championship Elite Eight where they will meet Yuba College (28-2) in quarterfinal play, Friday, March 15, 1 p.m. at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, CA.
Knights’ guard Green led the team with 17 points, shooting 5-for-10 from the field and 7-for-8 from the free-throw line. He played the last 9 minutes of regulation and all of overtime with four fouls.
Green scored six of his points in overtime, including two free throws with 13 seconds left to push the Knights to their final winning margin of three. He also delivered the assist on Crawford’s step-back 3-point shot.
“My teammates had trust in me and they knew that if I got the ball, I could make a play with it,” Green said after the game.
City won despite their lowest field-goal shooting performance of the season (35.7%). The Knights did not score their first points of the game until the 13-minute mark of the first half, starting 0-for-8 before a KJay Bradley free throw made the score 7-1.
Bradley had 13 points, all in the first half, and was hampered by leg cramps for much of the second half and overtime.
Crawford had 12 points on the night and Kevin Moore added 11. Keavie Love came off the bench to pull down a team-leading six rebounds and scored two points, as did Kenny Gonzalez.
The Bulldogs continued their playoff dominance of the paint on Saturday, out rebounding the Knights by 18 and outscoring them down-low 44-26.
Allan Hancock forward Taevon Pierre-Louis dominated for the Bulldogs, leading in both scoring (20) and rebounding (14).
The Bulldog’s season-leading scorer Mylo Santos was held to 12 points, five below his season average.
After scoring a layup with one second left in regulation to send the game to overtime, Santos was denied similar heroics when he missed the final shot of overtime over the outstretched arm of Crawford
Having achieved the goal of making it to the Elite Eight, one they missed out on last year by one basket, Green was already looking forward to the championship tournament.
“It’s three back-to-back-to-back games,” Green said. “By that third day, it’s whoever is the healthiest. We have got to focus on keeping our body healthy and it’ll get us far.”
As his teammates celebrated their victory on the floor, Green reflected on the moment.
“It feels so good to earn it and take it all in.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story has been corrected to reflect the game was the lowest shooting percentage game of the season. The state tournament begins Thursday, but City will not play until Friday. City Times regrets the error.
Update write-thru, March 11, 2:15 p.m.: The Knights’ opponent was announced Saturday night, and that is now included in this version. Additional game details and comments from Green and Charlens were also added to this write-thru, which is an updated version of the original breaking news story. Learn more about the practice in sports writing here.
