Dougherty Gymnasium went out in a blaze…of technicals!
The final two games at  St. Augustine were in  keeping with the history of the  64-year-old building, a bandbox of often ear-splitting noise, tightly-packed crowds, and  barnburner finishes.
Foothills Christian coach Brad Leaf will be serving a suspension when the Knights open play in the Southern California regionals of the state playoffs next week.
Despite the 72-69 loss to the Saints in semifinals of the San Diego Section playoffs, Foothills will join St. Augustine, Torrey Pines, and five other local Open Division teams in the extended postseason.
Blame Leaf’s one-time benching on the decibel level created by the overflowing mass of humanity in the old gym or the spirit of Fr. Dougherty.
Fr. Joseph Dougherty was an Augustinian Provincial who led the fund-raising drive that resulted in the Dec. 3, 1951, dedication of the squat, brick edifice that seats maybe 700 persons and occupies a campus niche on Palm Avenue between 32nd and Bancroft streets.
COACH BANISHED
Leaf received two technicals and an automatic ejection with 1.5 seconds remaining in the game.
As a team, Foothills was hit with three technicals because  a Knights player, or Leaf, called time out after Foothills rebounded a missed shot with 1.9 seconds remaining and the score tied at 69.
Foothills, however, was out of time outs, prompting the first whistle.
Leaf got into trouble when he began shouting that he had not called time out, resulting in technical No. 1.
When Leaf stalked the referee across the court, another in the crew raised his right hand to signal the second technical and ejection.
“It was a chaotic situation,” Leaf later said to writer John Maffei of the Union-Tribune. “The gym was packed, everyone was standing. It was tough to hear or see anything….”
SAINTS ON RECEIVING END
The Saints’ Taeshon Cherry was shown the door three nights before after the player complained about a  foul in the second quarter of the Saints’ 68-45, quarterfinals win over La Costa Canyon.
CIF commissioner Jerry Schniepp overturned Cherry’s ejection after the crew of officials admitted  a mistake and that Cherry had not received two technicals, since the first whistle had resulted in a common foul.
Saints coach Mike Haupt didn’t start Cherry against Foothills but the 6-foot, 8-inch junior got into the game minutes later and scored 17 points.
OTTO MAN
The Saints’ game hero was Otto Taylor, a 6-1 senior who scored 23 points and hit three free throws in six attempts (two for each technical) with 1.5 remaining to give St. Augustine the victory.
SET SHOTS
Dougherty Gym will be used for other school purposes next season, when the Saints move into their new 1,500-seat arena on campus…the Open finals Saturday night at the Jenny Craig Pavilion on the University of San Diego campus will match the No. 1 (St. Augustine) and No. 2 (Torrey Pines) teams in the Union-Tribune weekly poll…the Girls Open final will bring together No. 1 Mission Hills and No. 2 The Bishop’s…St. Augustine is eighth in the Cal-Hi Sports state top 20 and Torrey Pines 16th…Mission Hills is fourth and The Bishop’s is on the bubble in the Girls’ top 20….
