Video: St. Joseph stuns Sierra Canyon on Tounde Yessoufou buzzer beater in CIF State playoffs
CHATSWORTH, CALIFORNIA - So much happened in 8.5 seconds.
Trailing by two, Sierra Canyon's Ethan Johnson made a corner 3-pointer in front of his own bench to put the Trailblazers up 68-67 with 5.3 second left.
As the ball went through the net, St. Joseph coach Tom Mott yelled for a timeout. But the clock continued to run which created confusion as the Sierra Canyon team swarmed Johnson in celebration.
The game was far from over.
St. Joseph scampered down the floor (around mid-court) and called another timeout with 2.1 seconds left. From the sideline, Julius Prince floated the ball to Tounde Yessoufou, who leapt for the ball, caught it at its high point, came back down to re-leap into the air for a shot from just inside the free throw line to win the game at the buzzer 69-68 and advance the Knights in the CIF State Open Division SoCal regional playoffs Wednesday night.
The Knights, who hail from Santa Maria, will travel to Eastvale Roosevelt on Saturday for the regional semifinals. Sierra Canyon's season is over a 26-4.
Yessoufou finished with 26 points and Prince scored 25 in the victory. Sierra Canyon was led by Justin Pippen's 18 points, while Noah Williams and Isaiah Elohim added 15 and 12 points, respectively.
Yessoufou had an opportunity to put St. Joseph up four but missed two free throws before Johnson hit the 3-pointer with 8.5 seconds left. Sierra Canyon led 62-57 with three minutes to play.
Yessoufou is one of the top-rated junior prospects in the country. The 5-star recruit has offers from Kansas, USC, UCLA and Arizona.
In other CIF State SoCal regional Open Division action, Carlsbad defeated St. Pius in overtime, 75-72.
Carlsbad will now travel to play No. 1 Harvard-Westlake on Saturday.
The winner of St. Joseph-Roosevelt and Harvard-Westlake-Carlsbad will play on Tuesday night in the regional final, which is the unofficial semifinal for the CIF State finals in Sacramento on March 8-9.
The Open Division final is scheduled for March 9 at 8 p.m. in the Golden 1 Center, home of the NBA's Sacramento Kings.
