The Cornerstone Christian basketball team poses for a team picture after beating Branson in the North Coast Section Division III championship game on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026, at College of Marin. (Photo courtesy of Cornerstone Christian athletics)
SAN JOSE — Cornerstone Christian survived Saturday with a 60-58 win at Willow Glen in the CIF Northern California Division III semifinals.
The Cougars advance to the final against Priory, which upset No. 1 seed Natomas. The game will be played Tuesday at Heritage High School.
The game on Saturday was played in front of a crowd that could only be described as capacity and then some at the Willow Glen gym. Every seat was taken and fans were lined up along each baseline and in the corners of the gym. The noise was deafening.
“The noise in the gym was something we never played in front of before,” Cornerstone Christian coach Michael Thomasson said. “People were right on top of us and the noise echoed. My players couldn’t hear me and I have a voice that projects. (Willow Glen) had a homecourt advantage and they fed off the energy of the crowd. This was the first time we played in an environment like that and the kids responded. I’m proud of how they handled adversity.’
Willow Glen (26-3) led 16-13 after one quarter before the visitors from Antioch went up 36-31 at halftime. Cornerstone made nearly every shot it took in the first half, knocking down 16 of 20, but Willow Glen’s aggressive, ball-hawking defense forced 11 turnovers.
Ben Lukacs scored 17 of his game-high 21 points in the first half, making all eight shots he attempted.
“Lukacs put it in another gear,” Thomasson said.
The Rams battled back to tie the score twice in the third quarter and three times in the fourth quarter, the last time at 56-56 on a basket by point guard Brayden Gumabo with 1:11 left.
James Perry made two free throws to put Cornerstone back in the lead and a basket by Alkeise Boodie made it a four-point lead.
Josh Kaminski scored with 13.9 seconds left to bring the Rams within two, and they desperately needed a turnover to get the ball back. They got it when Gray slipped and fell with the ball in his possession and was called for a travel with 5.9 seconds to go.
A Willow Glen player was fouled going to the basket and was awarded two free throws with 0.2 seconds on the clock. But his first shot missed and after the second was intentionally missed, but there was too little time remaining for a follow shot.
And Willow Glen, after winning its first Central Coast Section title since 1969, fell one game short of reaching the NorCal finals.
“I am so incredibly proud of this team, my assistant coaches, the Willow Glen community and everybody who was involved in this special moment,” said first-year coach Patrick Judge.”The words can’t even reach the grandeur it deserves. I’ll remember this until the day I die.”
Gray, Cornerstone’s 6-foot-7 frontcourt standout, scored 13 to go along with the 21 scored by Lukacs as Cornerstone (27-8) won its 16th in a row.
Cornerstone had a huge size advantage. Ten of the 15 players on Cornerstone’s roster were taller than any of the players in Willow Glen’s rotation, which had no one taller than 6-2.
Gumabo led Willow Glen with 18 points. Caiden Morefield, a 6-2 junior, was matched up with Gray at the 5 and scored 13 points. Kaminski scored 11 and sophomore Miles Ingram had 9 on three 3-pointers.
“He had some height on me but I had some weight on him,” Morefield said of his matchup with Gray. “You’ve got to play with what you got. We’re a public school not really known for our sports. Last time we won CCS was 50-something years ago. We hadn’t won league in a while, since I was born.” .
Cornerstone won despite shooting 7 of 19 from the foul line. But on four different occasions the Cougars gained an additional possession by coming up with an offensive rebound off a missed free throw.
Cornerstone’s size and length contributed to an off-shooting night for the Rams who made 23 of 60 field-goal attempts (38%) while the visitors were just a shade under 60%, (25 of 42). Willow Glen stayed in the game on the strength of its aggressive defense with a plus-16 turnover differential, forcing 22 while committing six.
“Our pressure won us a lot of games this season,” Judge said. “Please quote me on this: Willow Glen will be back next year.”
Originally published at Glenn Reeves