Mac Moore/Lawrence Sports, File Photo
Bishop Seabury relinquished a 12-point lead in the second half of the team’s 38-36 loss against Burlingame at home on Feb. 28 in the sub-state semifinals. Freshman Quintin Taylor and senior Jace Hoffman are pictured here.
In a rematch of an overtime thriller between the same two programs in the same round of postseason from two years ago, Bishop Seabury and Burlingame played to another dramatic finish decided by just two points.
Seabury won the previous battle, on the team’s path to reaching a state championship game, but this time the Seahawks came out on the losing end.
Seabury saw a 12-point lead in the third quarter evaporate and found itself in a position where the team needed a late-game bucket to possibly force overtime and a repeat of the 2024 contest.
Instead, the Seahawks fell 38-36 in regulation against the Bearcats at home on Saturday in Class 1A Division I sub-state semifinals.
Trailing by two and in possession with 20 seconds remaining in regulation, senior guard Jace Hoffman drove the right baseline and misfired on a running one-handed floater from five feet out.
Senior forward Marion Stubbs tipped the rebound back toward the perimeter, allowing junior center Lucien Brockhoff to corral the rebound. With the clock ticking under 10 seconds, Quintin Taylor raced toward the bucket, only to find Burlingame senior Drake Skirvin, a 6-foot-7 shot-blocking dynamo, waiting right in Taylor’s path.
As Skirvin planted his feet on the court, Taylor attempted to avoid contact using a Euro step. But Seabury’s freshman guard ended up colliding his leg with Skirvin’s leg as he tried to hop past the defender.
Taylor managed to heave the ball in the general vicinity of the basket as he crumpled to the floor with a leg injury. After the ball lightly grazed the bottom front of the rim, Stubbs jumped up and got his hands on the ball, at least temporarily. He looked as if he planned to immediately launch a putback attempt in mid-air.
But Stubbs never got the chance for his game-tying shot as Skirvin ripped the ball away from Stubbs, sealing the victory for the Bearcats.
After the heartbreaking loss, Seabury head coach Trey Johnson left the floor upset over how the referees officiated that final sequence.
Johnson said that his star guard was “run into and tackled on the play.”
“At the end, (he was) clearly getting tackled on the way to the rim,” Johnson said, adding that he also felt Hoffman was fouled on his shot attempt. “I know the refs didn’t want to call a foul at the end to decide a game. But if it’s a foul early, it should be a foul late.
“It’s a disappointing way to end the game.”
The game’s final play was a microcosm of the team’s offensive struggles throughout the contest, and specifically in the final frame. The Seahawks led 33-26 through three quarters of play, but were outscored 12-3 over the final eight minutes of regulation.
Johnson added that both Hoffman and Taylor, the team’s top scoring options, were dealing with flu-like symptoms. Hoffman, he said, was battling a 102-degree fever a day prior.
“We were playing with low energy,” Johnson said.
Hoffman entered the contest averaging around 20 points per game, but was held to just five. Hoffman, also known as a sharpshooter from long range, didn’t attempt a single 3-pointer against Burlingame.
“Him not shooting a 3 hurt our offense a little bit,” Johnson said. “Jace not scoring throws everybody off because it affects a lot of things. When he’s hitting shots, people have to move around. When he’s getting to the rim, people are getting open. So when he’s not being aggressive and not scoring, it’s very hard for us (to play our style).”
Despite the offensive woes from the perimeter, the game was mostly decided in the paint. Seabury’s inability to contain Skirvin proved to be its undoing.
Skirvin, one of the top defensive players in the class, supplied 15 of his game-high 20 points in the second half. The bouncy forward was a menace in the paint, grabbing 12 rebounds while swatting five shots.
In addition to their epic postseason matchup from the 2023-24 postseason, Seabury defeated Burlingame in a pair of regular-season games since then, including a 63-58 road win for the Seahawks back in December.
Johnson said he knew that this latest battle with Burlingame would boil down to how well his players could defend Skirvin, and whether they could manage to limit him on the glass.
“And we did not do that,” Johnson said.
Bishop Seabury opened the contest on a 5-0 spurt, capped off by Taylor’s 3-pointer from the top of the key. Burlingame responded with a 12-2 run as they rode Brock Moon’s hot hand.
Bishop Seabury replied with an 11-0 blitz, punctuated by Taylor’s euro-step lay-in to go up 18-11 with 5:25 remaining in the first half. Stubbs was also able to hold his own against Skirvin in the paint, supplying the Seahawks with 10 points in the second quarter as Seabury led 26-20 at the half.
The Seahawks switched to a zone defense to open the second half, but that opened the door for Skirvin to further assert his dominance on the glass. Johnson said he went away from a man defense that had been largely effective over concerns about foul trouble.
“They were calling a lot of touchy fouls,” Johnson said.
Taylor came out strong in the third quarter, driving and dishing to Stubbs for a bucket underneath. On the following possession, Taylor probed the perimeter, eventually threading a pass to a cutting Lucien Brockhoff for a layup and a 30-20 Seahawks’ lead.
Taylor knocked down a pair of free throws to push the Seahawks’ advantage to 12 points with six minutes remaining in the third quarter. With no shot clock in the game — the Kansas State High School Activities Association approved a mandatory adoption of a shot clock in high school basketball games, but gave Class 1A DI and DII classifications until the 2027-28 season to implement that change — Seabury seemed to be cruising to victory.
Instead, Seabury went ice cold as the Seahawks were held to just four points over the final 14 minutes of regulation en route to the heartbreaking loss.
“Kudos to them for playing good defense,” Johnson said, as the Seahawks were held at around 25 points under their season average.
Seabury loses three seniors to graduation, including starters Hoffman and Stubbs. Hoffman is one of the program’s most decorated players, having helped lead the team to a state runner-up finish as a sophomore in 2024 and this year became the program’s all-time leading scorer.
“Some of our sophomore kids playing JV will need to take a step forward,” Johnson said.
Johnson specifically mentioned Willis Idol as a potential key contributor. The 6-foot-5 freshman saw limited varsity minutes this season.
Johnson added that his squad turned a corner earlier in the campaign after improving in the areas of ball security, team defense, and rebounding.
“We learned how to play together as a team,” Johnson said, as the Seahawks finished 17-6 overall and 10-1 in the Kaw Valley Conference.
In addition to Hoffman and Stubbs, reserve guard Milton Okazaki will also graduate in the Class of 2026.
