Bishop Diego’s Grant Sexton lays in an easy bucket for the Cardinals on Wednesday.
Bishop Diego’s boys basketball team turned in a season-high in points in its CIF playoff opener on Wednesday night, routing visiting Santa Rosa Academy 83-26 in a Division-5AA first-round game.
The Cardinals had eleven players in the scoring column, led by Peter Kwock’s 12 points, Grant Sexton with 11, and Marcos Schneider with 10.
“Everyone scored I think,” Sexton said. “And everyone said that they wanted to get an assist and not just score.”
Bishop Diego’s previous season high was 68 points.
The Cardinals have been working on a press for the playoffs and it was very effective on Wednesday. It helped the Cardinals leap out to a 56-9 halftime lead.
“We got a lot of easy steals and layups early in the game which got us going,” said Bishop Diego head coach Dean Prophet, whose fourth-seeded team improves to 16-10 for the season.
The Cardinals were playing without starting center Thomas Lash for the third game in a row but were boosted by the debuts of freshmen Mitchell Cota and Mike Agnoli, who starred for the JV team this season. Lash is day-to-day, and Kwock, who tweaked an ankle, is expected to be ready for Friday’s second round.
Bishop Diego advances to play Academy for Academic Excellence, 66-39 winners over Environmental Charter. The Cardinals lost the pre-flip and will travel for their second-round game.
“As coach kept saying, it’s just going to keep getting harder,” Sexton said.
BISHOP DIEGO 83, SANTA ROSA ACADEMY 26
SRA 5 4 10 7 – 26
BD 24 32 12 15 – 83Santa Rosa Academy – Badillo 2, Zinter 9, Dugan 3, Hestdalen 4, Hoffman 2, Oropeza 6.
Bishop Diego – Bennett 8, Kwock 12, Price 2, Sexton 11, W. Busch 8, Murillo 8, Schneider 10, N. Busch 6, Pearson 5, Cota 7, Agnoli 6.
