St. Francis enjoyed a little bit of a return to normalcy on Saturday, Jan. 18, when the Golden Knights boys' basketball team hosted its first Mission League game of the season against Crespi.

It had been 10 days since what would have been the opening league game for the Golden Knights, but because of the destruction the Eaton Fire, St. Francis had to wait its turn.

Members of the St. Francis community were impacted in some form, either losing their homes or having to evacuate. Despite all that's happened, the team had to persevere. 

"We're just fortunate to be playing," St. Francis coach Todd Wolfson said. "A week ago, I thought were going to be pushed back weeks and weeks and weeks. We're just very happy to be playing and I feel for the guys on our team that lost their house or have been evacuated. I know we wanted to win tonight, but it's just nice to get back on the court."

Trailing most of the game, St. Francis got within a point in the fourth quarter, but Crespi was able to hang on to defeat the hosts 71-63. Despite the loss, the Golden Knights continue to move forward.

"What we talk about all the time is there's two types of people in this world: people that make excuses and people that don't — and we're not going to be the people that make excuses," Wolfson said. "Tonight was a winnable game. We've got to play better. I've got to coach better. Hopefully we get a better result next time."

It was the Golden Knights' second game back after evacuation orders forced many in the St. Francis community out of their homes. A handful of basketball players lost their homes as a result of the Eaton Fire, which, as of Jan. 20, has destroyed nearly 10,000 structures, burned roughly 14,000 acres and killed 17 people. 

Though a slate of Mission League games await them, the Golden Knights are still looking to provide relief to fire victims and are extending a helping hand to the Pacific Palisades.

On Sunday, Jan. 26, St. Francis is hosting Palisades High in a donation drive game starting with the junior varsity level at 2 p.m., followed by the varsity at 3:30 p.m. Wolfson said the day will be filled with raffles, games and other activities to help raise relief funds for victims of both the Eaton and Palisades fires.

Crespi was also upended by the wildfires and had to reconfigure its practices throughout the week leading up to its matchup against St. Francis, said Crespi coach Derek Fisher. Some Celts players were in mandatory evacuation zones.

"We tried to at least stay connected as a group and just remind ourselves how thankful we were to have a space to meet because a lot of kids lost their gym or they lost their team or the ability to do these things," Fisher said. "Thankfully we were able to stay busy and try to give guys at least an hour or an hour and a half of something else to think about and experience."

Mental preparation was also key coming into the game. 

"Since Day 1, we've just been trying to communicate as much as possible to our guys about perspective and compassion and having a level of awareness of what other people are experiencing, even if some of our own families weren't evacuated or didn't necessarily lose homes," Fisher said. "We had teachers on campus and other students on campus that lost homes, so we've been talking to our guys since Day 1 of keeping that in mind so that coming into tonight, it wasn't so much of an emphasis."

The Golden Knights and Celts both started slow, trying to shake off turnovers as the score stood at a 4-3 Crespi lead midway into the first quarter. The Celts were able to pull away, going on a 9-0 run on the back of four free throw makes and a three-point shot to take a 13-3 lead with 2:01 left in the opening frame.

Junior DeLan Grant was able to get the Golden Knights into double digits as the quarter ended with a 17-10 lead for the Celts.

Crespi stretched its lead to as much as 10, 28-18, with 1:13 to go in the half, but a pair of free throws from freshman Luke Paulus and a three-pointer from senior Ben O'Connor cut it to a five-point deficit. The Celts led 30-24 at the break.

A coast-to-coast basket from Grant capped a more eventful third quarter as the Golden Knights trailed the Celts 45-41. Grant scored seven of his team-high 26 points in the frame.

Paulus made a three-pointer at the start of the fourth quarter to pull St. Francis to within one point, 45-44, but the Celts answered immediately with a pair of threes to extend their lead and never looked back.

"We've just got to play harder and listen to the game plan," said Paulus about the next set of league games. "Just do our best and get rest."

Paulus finished with 11 points, while teammate Joe Hickey had 13 points to go along with nine rebounds and O'Connor had six points. Though their backs were against the wall, the Golden Knights continued to try to keep up the pressure throughout the fourth quarter.

"A lot of people on our team lost their houses due to the fire, so it was rough," Paulus said. "We had a few days off. Rusty. No excuses though. We just couldn't pull it off."