Knights ready to make a run in CIF State Tournament

Posted: Mar 5, 2013 9:38 PM by Andrew Masuda
Updated: Mar 5, 2013 10:33 PM

Knights ready to make a run in State Tournament

The St. Joseph Knights are thrilled to play together for at least another night. The Knights practiced Tuesday ahead of their CIF State Tournament game on Wednesday at Exeter.

The Knights lost a week and a half ago 54-46 to Brentwood in the Division 4A semifinals. Despite the loss, the St. Joseph boys basketball team received an at-large berth to the Division 4 CIF State Tournament.

The 22-8 Knights are the 14th seed in the Southern California Division 4 Regional. They play at 3rd seeded Exeter on Wednesday night. The Monarchs are 23-6 and won the CIF Central Section Division 4 title. "They run really good offense and they play man to man defense, they're good at defense. So we're just trying to prepare for them," said senior point guard Isaac Murillo, who leads St. Joseph with almost eight assists per game.

The Knights are excited to have another shot in the postseason. It'll be the program's first regional playoff game since 2004 when the team lost in the regional finals.

The Knights are eager to put their loss two weeks ago behind them and play for a State title. "We're just really happy to have a second chance because it hurt a lot to lose. So we want to go in and get something done in State. We think we have a good chance of doing some stuff. We're definitely not content to just be here. We want to make a run at it," said Case Bruton, the senior leads the Knights with almost 21 points per game.

Juniors Curry Parham (12 points, 6 rebounds) and Keith Datu (13 points, 9 rebounds, 3 blocks) are dominant forces inside for the Knights.

Exeter is led by senior forward Eli Garver, who's averaging 11 points and 6 rebounds per game. Junior center Caleb Harden averages 10 points and 7 rebounds.

Tip off at Exeter High is at 7 pm. The Mission Prep boys host Laton in a Division 5 games at 7 pm Wednesday, while Arroyo Grande plays at Westlake in a DII game.