Central Catholic tops Ripon for return to D-IV boys hoop final

Central Catholic will play to defend its Sac-Joaquin Section boys basketball crown after an 82-61 victory over Ripon in a Division IV semifinal Wednesday at Tokay High School.

The top-seeded Raiders (23-7) will play No. 2 West Campus, a 79-64 winner over No. 6 Liberty Ranch in Wednesday’s late game at the Tokay gym.

Simply getting back to the D-IV final wasn’t enough for Central Catholic coach Mike Wilson.

“The exciting part is we got back,” said Wilson. “But I’m definitely not just glad to be here. We want that blue flag. The kids really want it badly, as do I.”

That seemed evident as the Raiders opened up a quick double-digit lead in the first quarter … and Ripon was never within single digits again.

Six-foot-5 forward Conor Fenton dominated the paint for Central Catholic, scoring 18 points and grabbing 17 rebounds.

“My teammates helped me out a lot,” said Fenton. “(They) hit shots; that gets me going, makes me intense.”

The Raiders’ dominance on the glass – Malcolm Clayton added eight rebounds, while senior guards Jared Rice (20 points), Cooper Wilson (10) and Amrit Dhaliwal (19) had four apiece – and created numerous second-chance opportunities while limiting Ripon’s.

“That was one of the things we really hammered home in regards to our prep for this game … limiting them to one shot,” said Wilson. “The film we saw on them, they crashed the boards really hard and got a lot of extra shots.”

Ripon coach Rod Wright agreed.

“(Fenton) was a monster up there,” said Wright, whose No. 4 Indians (24-6) still will qualify for the CIF Northern California regional tournament by virtue of being a section semifinalist. “They just had so many offensive rebounds and second-chance points that it hurt us, because once you take the ball out of the net, you’re setting up your offense. And when we set up our offense, obviously, it didn’t quite flow.”

Cole Stevens paced Ripon with 14 points, while Aaron Paschini finished with 10 before fouling out. Wright’s son, Derek Wright, finished with three points, to overtake his father in the family scoring race at Tokay High.

“My brother (Greg) was here, I was here and now my son was here,” said Wright. “All of us, combined, scored 103 points.”

Greg Wright, an all-Northern California honoree for Ripon Christian in 1977, accounted for 98 of the 103 points.

This story was originally published March 1, 2017 at 9:31 PM with the headline "Central Catholic tops Ripon for return to D-IV boys hoop final."