Knights win a wild one over Woodside

After the pair combined to fumble away a sideline inbound pass coming out a timeout with less than 25 seconds to play, the pair then combined to break up a pass and forced a turnover at mid-court to set up the go-ahead bucket as the Knight held on a for a 42-41 win over Woodside in a key Peninsula Athletic League Ocean Division matchup.

That sequence over the last 25 seconds of the game encapsulated the final couple minutes as neither team seemed to want to win. With the game tied at 40-all, Woodside turned the ball over with 1:21 left, only to see Hillsdale cough the ball up with 1:08 left.

When the Knights fumbled the ball away on a sideline inbound play, Hillsdale head coach Deshawn Mitchell thought that was game over.

“I thought, ‘I’m going to go get a [drink],’” Mitchell said of his reaction to the Knights’ 13th turnover of the night and 10th in the second half.

“I hoped the basketball gods were with us.”

But Jessup and Kanda redeemed themselves by forcing the turnover, with the ball ending up in the hands of Callum North, who pushed the ball forward. He kept running the floor, however, and as he sliced through the key, received a pass and laid it in to put the Knights up 42-41 with 16 seconds left to play.

More than enough time for Woodside, but the Wildcats bobbled the ball out of bounds with 1.5 seconds left.

“That’s a good team and we knew it would be a dogfight,” Mitchell said. “We match up perfectly.”

The game was a battle for second place in the Ocean Division and with the win, Hillsdale (6-1 PAL Ocean, 10-10 overall) remained one game behind division-leading Aragon, which beat El Camino 45-36 Tuesday night as the second half of PAL play begins.

Woodside (5-2, 8-10) is now two games back of the Dons.

The wild finish help make up for the fact that neither team shot the ball particularly well. They took turns struggling in the first half, with Hillsdale leading 13-6 after the first quarter, before Woodside outscored the Knights 10-6 in the second as Hillsdale held a 19-16 at the break.

Neither team could get their main men going in the first half. Hillsdale’s scoring leader, Freeman Lane, was held to just two first-half points. Meanwhile, Woodside’s big two — Marco Antonino and Luke Grech — were held scoreless in the first two quarters.

“We said, ‘Just do whatever you can to keep it out of (their) hands,” Mitchell said. “And I think they did the same to [Lane].”

After enduring a six-minute scoring drought in the second quarter, and yet still having the lead, it looked as if a slew of third-quarter turnovers were going to sink Hillsdale’s chances. And the Wildcats took advantage as they opened the second half on a 11-4 run to take a 27-23 lead with 2:26 left in the period.

Antonino started to get his game going, knocking down a 3-pointer that tied the game at 23-all and then converting a fastbreak layup for the four-point lead.

Antonino would go on to score all 11 his team-high points in the second half.

But the Knights managed to overcome the sloppy ball control. Lane scored on a follow of his own miss and after Kanda knocked down a floater off the bounce, Lane scored on a hanging tip-in to give Hillsdale a 29-27 lead going into the fourth.

“We rely on the defense. Our guys pride themselves on defense,” Mitchell said. “I knew if we couldn’t get shots to fall, I knew we could hold them defensively.”

Lane, who finished with nine points, opened the fourth with a pair of free throws for a 31-29 advantage, but Woodside responded with a 7-0 run. Grech scored on a scoop to the hoop, followed by a putback by Josh Fitzsimmons, with Antonino converting a three-point play to put the Wildcats up 34-31.

That’s when Hillsdale’s Sebastian Avina made his presence felt. Avina got off to a rough start, missing his first four shots and had six points at halftime.

But in the fourth, he scored on a baseline drive to cut the deficit to one, 34-33, and followed that with a 3-p0inter at the top of the key off a screen to go up 36-34.

Woodside tied it on David Figueroa drive to the bucket and when Owen Kinder hit an off-balance jumper followed by an Antonino power move to rim, the Wildcats were up 40-37 with 1:57 to play.

But Avina tied it with his second 3 of the quarter with 1:42 remaining to set up frantic final 102 seconds. He finished with a game-high 16 points.

For the Knights, it was their fifth straight win after a 3-9 non-league start to the season.

“Why we’re moving in the right direction is we’re playing for each other,” Mitchell said. “It has opened up the door for a lot (to happen).”