A strong third-quarter surge from Carpinteria wasn’t enough to keep Bishop Diego’s boys basketball team from clinching its first outright Frontier League title since 2005 on Friday night, as the visiting Cardinals posted a 52-36 win in front of a raucous crowd.
Noah Tack scored 13 points for the Cardinals, who saw a 28-13 halftime lead shrink to 28-25 with 1:30 to go in the third quarter. An old-fashioned 3-point play by Elias Muñoz ended the dry spell, however, and Bishop outscored the Warriors 22-11 the rest of the way.
“It feels great. We’ve worked for it all year. We were just building up to it, and hopefully we do well in the playoffs,” said Tack, who set the tone in the opening moments of the game with a 3-pointer that gave Bishop a 5-0 lead.
“We needed some more stops and we needed some more shots to fall. We missed nine free throws in the first half,” said Warriors coach Johnny Ward, whose team was 7-for-19 from the charity stripe on the night.
Tack, a post player, hit two treys and scored 10 points in the first half. Paul “Munchie” Aguilar led the Warriors’ third-quarter run, scoring six points in the period.
“We made our run. Unfortunately we couldn’t sustain it long enough and they made one back,” said Ward. “We came out in the third quarter and Munchie started to lead us.”
Cardinals coach Dean Prophet has his fifth-ranked team (Div. VI-AA) at 17-7 and 8-1 in league play in his first season at the helm. The Warriors are now 12-10, 3-5.
“Coach (Ray) Vazquez did a good job, you know, because I came in and those kids were pretty well schooled,” he said. “They responded to what I was asking them to do.”
BISHOP DIEGO 52, CARPINTERIA 36
BISHOP DIEGO — Tisdale 6, Garcia 4, Diaz 6, Muñoz 12, Ramirez 6, Kwock 2, Moulton 1, Helkey 2, Tack 13. Totals 14 FG, 17-26 FT, 52.
CARPINTERIA — PAguilar 9, OAguilar 7, Arellano 4, Menegon 7, Madden 7, Jimenez 2. Totals 13 FG, 7-19 FT, 36.
Bishop Diego…15 13 5 19 — 52
Carpinteria…8 5 12 11 — 36
3-point goals — BD 5 (Ramirez 2, Tack 2, Muñoz 1). C 2 (PAguilar, OAguilar, Madden). Total fouls — BD 17, C 21. Fouled out — none. Technicals — none.
Nice shout out to Coach Vasquez.