Purple reign: Riordan outlasts St. Ignatius in double OT thriller to clinch WCAL title

SAN FRANCISCO — “Purple Reign” was already blasting through the speakers when Archbishop Riordan’s student section poured onto the floor on Tuesday night. 

As the 1980s Prince hit provided the perfect backdrop to an unforgettable night, Riordan players stacked their hands, telling the crowd and anyone watching that there are levels to this. Meanwhile, the Riordan student section lined up near the St. Ignatius locker room, waved goodbye and made it known that this was their house. 

It took two overtimes but when the final buzzer sounded, it was Riordan that was all smiles. 

Riordan and St. Ignatius traded haymakers through eight extra minutes, piling up 195 total points and forcing clutch moment after clutch moment in one of the most thrilling games of the high school season. 

When it finally ended, the home team came out on top as the Crusaders celebrated a 100-95 win in double overtime. 

The victory kept Riordan’s West Catholic Athletic League stranglehold intact, extending its win streak in league play to 44 games dating back to 2023 and pushing the Crusaders to a fourth consecutive WCAL title, and its third outright league crown. 

It also marked just the fourth time in program history Riordan has scored 100 points, and it came in fitting fashion against its San Francisco rival. 

Four weeks after Andrew Hilman’s buzzer-beater at USF decided the last meeting, Riordan survived an 11-point third-quarter deficit, traded clutch shot after clutch shot through regulation and two extra periods, then leaned on point guard Cole White in the second OT after Hilman fouled out. 

“It was about the mental toughness to stay with it,” Riordan coach Joey Curtin said. “We didn’t play our best. That’s a team that if you relax, they will make you pay. … We went back and forth like crazy. So hats off to them. Those guys played great, made big shots over and over all. It was just a great high school game.

“We didn’t want to share a league title. That’s nothing to sneeze at, but it’s just not something we wanted to do. We wanted it all for ourselves, and man did they make that hard.” 

Hilman finished with a career-high 33 points and Cole White had 27. JP Pihtovs had 16 points, eight rebounds and four blocks. 

“It’s a lot when every team is coming at you with their best,” Hilman said. “These teams don’t have anything to lose. We have a streak to lose. They came out ready today, hitting crazy shots but I’m proud of my guys.” 

After taking a four-point lead at halftime, St. Ignatius came out firing to open the second half. 

After a put back layup from Noah Kirsch-Lopez, the Wildcats had their biggest lead of the night at 11. The game started to shift in the road team’s favor as St. Ignatius seemingly couldn’t miss. 

But for Riordan, all it takes is one play to ignite a run.

Following Kirsch-Lopez’s bucket, Hilman took the ball coast-to-coast and found a takeoff spot near the middle of the lane. As he rose above the rim, he slammed the ball through the net and over multiple Wildcat defenders, completing a monster three-point play that got the Riordan crowd rocking again.

“I knew I just had to make a play for the team,” Hilman said of the dunk. “I was just mad at that point.” 

The dunk sparked a 9-3 Riordan run to tie the game after three quarters, in which he scored or assisted on every made bucket. 

The game went back and forth in the final eight minutes, but St. Ignatius looked to finally put the game away when Steele Labagh hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 48 seconds left and hit two free throws on the next possession to put the Wildcats up four. 

Down 78-74 with 14 seconds left, Pihtovs got fouled and converted a tough layup for a three-point play that cut the deficit back down to one. 

St. Ignatius made just one free throw on the next possession to build the lead back to two, leaving the door open for Riordan to tie or take the lead. 

And they did.

DJ Armstrong hit two free throws to send the game into overtime tied at 79.

In the first overtime period, Riordan looked like the dominant team. Hilman hit a stepback 2-pointer and made a free throw late, giving the Crusaders a three-point lead with under 20 seconds left. With the Wildcats down three, St. Ignatius point guard Shawn Boquiren hit a wide-open 3-pointer to tie the game at 87 and send the game into one more extra period. 

The Wildcats’ momentum seemed to carry over into the second overtime as they built a 91-87 lead and successfully found a way to foul out Hilman early in the period. 

That was until White decided he was going to be the hero. 

After St. Ignatius took a four-point advantage, White proceeded to torch the Wildcats’ defense. He helped Riordan outscore St. Ignatius 13-4 in the final three minutes of the game, scoring eight points during that stretch to seal the win for the Crusaders. 

“I knew I had to step up and be a leader,” White said. “I was in a flow state.” 

The loss hurts for St. Ignatius, which has now lost twice to Riordan in the same heartbreaking fashion. 

“I think we played our tails off. I think the effort was there. I just think in the end, they made more plays than we did,” St. Ignatius coach Jason Greenfield said. “We put ourselves in position, we played a heck of a game and we came up a little bit short. It’s disappointing, but it’s hard not to be proud of the way that we played.” 

Riordan will presumably get the top seed in the Central Coast Section Open Division playoffs, which will have brackets released on Wednesday night. St. Ignatius is likely to be the No. 2 seed in the Open Division. 

Even with two games played in the regular season, a third could be coming as soon as next week. A fourth can be played down the road if St. Ignatius is deemed a NorCal Open Division team.

Don’t expect any sweeping changes from either team should another game be on the horizon. 

“At this point, we know each other pretty well. It’s not gonna be a whole lot to change,” Greenfield said.