Uncommitted sophomore guard Isaiah Briscoe scored seven straight points down the stretch and Pittsburgh-bound forward Mike Young hit two huge foul shots as St. Benedict’s Prep snapped Findlay Prep’s 54-game winning streak en route to a place in the ESPN NHSI championship game.
St. Benedict’s 60-57 victory in the semifinals at Georgetown Prep in North Bethesda, Md., sets up Saturday’s championship game against Montverde Academy, which earlier knocked off Prime Prep, 57-55.
The game will tip at 1 p.m. on ESPN.
Montverde is coached by former St. Patrick coach Kevin Boyle, whose teams used to play St. Benedict’s annually in New Jersey.
“Kevin and I have played a few times,” St. Benedict’s coach Mark Taylor told SNY.tv by phone. “He’s a great coach and they have a great program and a terrific team and it’s going to be fun.
“We’re very excited, we feel like we can play with anybody with right now and we’re playing at a very high level, so it’s gonna be exciting.’
Findlay Prep had won two straight NHSI titles, including last year’s come-from-behind win over Boyle and Montverde, and three of four NHSI crowns.
After leading by eight points after three periods, St. Benedict’s trailed 55-51 midway through the fourth.
Briscoe (14 points) hit a huge 3-pointer from the left corner and then a 2-point jumper to put the Gray Bees up 56-55. Briscoe later added a steal and a layup to make it 58-57, although he missed the free throw. Briscoe also came up with a loose ball under the Findlay Prep basket.
“I had sat him for a minute, I think he re-focused himself and he went off in the last three minutes,” Taylor said of Briscoe. “Just unbelievable.”
Young (10 points) grabbed a defensive rebound and hit two foul shots to make it 60-57 in favor of St. Benedict’s.
“Mike Young got an unbelievable big-time rebound and Mike hit two foul shots and that put us up three,” Taylor said.
Young later missed another foul shots that would’ve made it a four-point lead.
Washington-bound Nigel Williams-Goss missed a desperation 3-point shot at the buzzer. He finished with a game-best 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting.
Indiana commit Stanford Robinson had 13 points and Michigan State commit Gavin Schilling and UCLA-bound Allerik Freeman 10 each for Findlay (35-1)
Syracuse-bound point guard Tyler Ennis had 19 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists and Denzell Taylor added nine points and 12 rebounds as St. Benedict’s improved to 32-1 and will now play for its first NHSI title.
“St. Benedict’s is a great place with a lot of history so I just think everybody’s excited about it,” Taylor said.
St. Benedict’s will play for the championship on the same day that Ennis’ college team will meet Michigan in the national semifinals.
“I know we got a lot more work to do down there,” Ennis previously told SNY.tv. “Hopefully by Saturday night if we win the whole thing and if [Syracuse] ends up being in the championship, it’s either going to be a great day or a bad day for my basketball.”
