The Falcons pulled out another thrilling victory, 49-47, over St. Charles Borromeo. After jumping out to a 13-3 lead and looking set to blow out the Bruins, the Falcons committed a foul and were also given a technical foul, and St. Charles made three of four free throws for those two fouls. That began the foul trouble that ended with one starter fouling out and another spending time on the bench before finishing with four fouls.

The second half began with the Falcons up 21-19. At 15:10 left in the game, however, the Falcons lost the lead, falling behind 29-28. They fell as far back as five down, but Kento DeNapoli made a pair of threes to help the Falcons pull closer. They did not regain the lead until the two minute mark, when the Falcons took a 44-43 lead. No one scored until there were thirty seconds left in the game when the Falcons lost the ball and fouled one of St. Charles’s best shooters. St. Charles made both of their free throws, but DeNapoli made a shot to regain the lead for St. Philip. St. Charles took the ball and was fouled, and again made both free throws with seven seconds left. The Falcons, out of timeouts, passed the ball to Andrew Cabato, who drove the length of the court and was fouled while shooting with three seconds left. He missed his first free throw, but the St. Charles crowd had cheered while he was shooting, so he was allowed to retake his first free throw, while a spectator was told to leave. On the retake, Cabato made the free throw to tie the score. His second free throw was short, but Paul Hawkins got the rebound and immediately shot the ball. The two-foot shot hit the backboard and the rim before going in, leaving 1.5 seconds on the clock (the clock originally said 0.5 seconds but the referees changed the time). St. Charles called timeout, but timeouts do not advance the ball, so they had to throw the ball from the baseline past midcourt. Will Dalgarn out jumped one of the St. Charles players and grabbed the ball, securing the victory.

The Falcons will play Cathedral Chapel on Wednesday 3/5 at Providence School in Burbank at 5:30 PM. Cathedral Chapel beat Holy Family South Pasadena (who the Falcons beat in Foothill League games and in the St. Rita tournament), Holy Family Glendale, and Holy Name of Jesus to reach the Elite Eight.

Fellow East Mission League teams Holy Family and St. Elizabeth were eliminated from the CYO playoffs in the Sweet 16. St. Elizabeth lost to Our Lady of Fatima in a game at St. Paul High School, while Holy Family lost to Cathedral Chapel in the game immediately after the Falcons won their game against St. Charles.