King’s Landing: The King’s Academy announces itself as CCS Open contender with win at Bellarmine
SAN JOSE — The King’s Academy has come to make noise in the Central Coast Section.
A year ago, the small Sunnyvale school romped through the enrollment-based CCS Division IV playoffs, won a NorCal regional title and nearly took home a state crown.
This year, the Knights reached the CCS Open Division bracket as the No. 5 seed, poised to compete against West Catholic Athletic League heavyweights.
On Friday night, TKA showed that it can do more than just compete. The Knights controlled their matchup with No. 4 Bellarmine throughout, holding the lead by at least seven points after every quarter and methodically navigating their way to a 46-35 win that delivered one message.
“They put TKA on the map tonight,” Knights coach Cameron Bradford said. “So I’m super excited. I’m just super proud of the guys.”
King’s Academy (22-3) faced quality competition in nonleague play, beating Amador Valley and losing a close game with Archbishop Mitty. Those experiences gave the Knights confidence they could compete with any team.
On the home floor of one of storied programs in the WCAL, TKA proved itself right.
“I know no one else believed in us, but we knew in that locker room that we had a great chance to go out here and make it happen,” Bradford said. “The guys stuck to the game plan and were gritty, tough, together. So I’m super proud of the team.”
While it isn’t exactly true that no one else believed in the Knights, TKA’s win was a result that raised some eyebrows.
Non-WCAL schools have often struggled in the Open Division, and the Catholic schools have lorded over the CCS for generations.
But King’s Academy has talent, size and a budding superstar in Boss Mhoon, the Knights’ super sophomore who led TKA in scoring despite missing a significant portion of the fourth quarter with cramps in both legs.
“We’ve really been doing great,” said Mhoon, who played in his third game since returning from a fractured ankle. “Beating a WCAL team as a smaller school, it feels great.”
Mhoon attributed his cramping to working his way back into game shape. He was seen stretching out his calves and hydrating along the baseline as he readied himself to reenter the action late in the fourth.
His teammates held down the fort in his stead, holding onto the lead they had when he left late in the third quarter.
He reentered with 2:24 to play and TKA nursing a 37-33 advantage, then the Knights went up six on Adrian Barnett’s quick layup thanks to a nice post feed from Hezekiah Sires.
TKA further sealed the outcome with a huge corner 3-pointer by Claxton Ladine that stretched the defeat near double digits.
“We weren’t making shots,” Bellarmine coach Alex Sarrett said. “They controlled the momentum. They just got cleaner looks than we did, so credit to them.”
Though Mhoon is the present and future indicator of TKA’s true ceiling, the Knights put together a true team effort to seal the win. And when he went out, they knew what to do.
They’ve already done it for a good chunk of this season.
“They were able to lean on past experiences and make it happen,” Bradford said. “Everybody contributed down the stretch. It was a team win.”
Now the Knights will get ready to head up to San Francisco to face top seed Archbishop Riordan, the favorite to win the Open and the two-time defending champion. Bradford said Friday’s win gives TKA the confidence to compete with any team in the section.
“We know Riordan is gonna be a tough animal, whole different animal,” he said, “but we’re excited for the challenge, and we’re ready to get after it.”
So is Mhoon, who said he expects to be full go for the Crusader Forum on Monday.
“It’s a big game,” he said. “Really, we got to play our best game, stay locked in mentally. You can’t get down on each other. Just keep pushing each other. But it really comes down to our defense and playing well together on offense.
“I’ve trained there before, but I haven’t played there. We’ve been watching them since we knew we were gonna play them. So we know what we’re getting ourselves into. We just got to execute our plan.”
Mhoon led TKA with 11 points, and the Knights got balanced scoring contributions from Barnett (9), Ladine (7), Sires (7), Scotty Beamish (5) and Xavier Barnett (5). Will Corbett and Brennan Williams led Bellarmine (16-9) with 12 points each.
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