Ripon Christian’s 6-foot-8 center was out with a sprained ankle Thursday for its California Interscholastic Federation Division V Northern Regional quarterfinal against visiting Kerman.
So coach Mark Hofman asked his 6-7 center to pick up the slack.
“I asked him in front of everyone in the locker room, and he responded like that,” Hofman said after his third-seeded Knights tamed the Lions, 73-58.
Jace Beidleman put together his best all-around effort, scoring a season-high 18 to go with 16 rebounds, five blocks and three steals. His dominance in the post complimented the perimeter play of Eli Terpsma, who tallied 27 points.
No. 6 Kerman (21-12) rode Rohnik Shergill’s hot hand, as he fired 32 points and made seven of his team’s 11 3s — many of them from NBA range.
Ripon Christian (25-7), winners of 17 straight, hopes to have Thys Van Der Hoek back Saturday for its NorCal semifinal at No. 2 University Prep (21-12) in Redding. The 6-8 senior, who played his first game of the season on Feb. 8 after recovering from a knee injury suffered in football, sprained an ankle in practice Wednesday.
“From the beginning, after I heard Thys was out, I knew I had to step up,” Beidleman said. “I had to get his rebounds, I had to get his points. I had to work hard, push the ball, just do what I do and try my hardest.”
He took over in the third quarter when the Knights otherwise struggled offensively after rolling to a 47-25 halftime lead. Beidleman accounted for eight of their 14 points in the period and scored twice on tip-in layups off misses.
Even without Van Der Hoek, Ripon Christian was able to harass the shorter Lions with their overall length, blocking 10 shots — three from the 6-4 Terpsma — while owning a 36-24 advantage on rebounds.
“I think it bothered us a little bit, but once we started to play our game we were good to go,” Kerman coach Tyler Morgan said. “I just think it took us a little bit to get going tonight.
“(Ripon Christian) came out guns a blazing. They have a really good team, really well coached. Tonight, the ball just didn’t bounce our way, but our guys fought and battled hard and I’m really, really proud of them.”
The Knights were off and running in the first half, using a 21-3 run for a 42-17 lead after Derek Van Elderen’s reverse lay-in with 2:39 left in the second quarter. Kerman went 4 minutes, 45 seconds between buckets — both 3-pointers — in the period.
While Ripon Christian was effective in running its half-court offense, it was its ability to push the pace and attack the basket that helped widen the gap. Trey Fasani played a part in the early surge with two and-1 layups. He and Van Elderen contributed eight points apiece.
“Being able to go in transition and get buckets, making the good, quick reads rather than doing a set play is almost always the best option, if it’s open,” Teprsma said. You can’t force it, but if it’s there, you just gotta take what they’re giving you and that’s what they were giving us at that point and we were able to capitalize on it. It’s just playing basketball.”
Kerman, to its credit, continued to battle until the end, even after losing guard Kam’Ron Stinson to an apparent leg injury. The Lions just did not have an answer for Beidleman in the paint and lacked a secondary scorer.
Shergill scored 12 of their 14 points in the first quarter and never cooled off.
“The only thing we could have done was maybe blitz at him, maybe double (team), but we didn’t want to do that,” Hofman said. “He had 32, but it wasn’t going to be enough. We wanted to make sure to shut everyone else down. He shot a very high percentage tonight. He’s a good baller, man.”
The semifinal at University Prep is scheduled to tip off at 7 Saturday night. The Northern Section Division IV champion Panthers downed seventh-seeded Cloverdale (27-4), 57-42. No. 1 Venture Academy (26-4) faces No. 5 Sierra (29-5) of Tollhouse in the other NorCal semifinal.
