CHINO HILLS, CA – Nothing, it seems, can impede the frantic pace of the Chino Hills High basketball team en route to its collective goal of state and national championships.
The Huskies took a 27-0 record and No. 1 ratings in both California and national polls into the CIF Southern Section’s third edition of its mega-tuff Open Division.
Lonzo Ball and a cast that includes younger brothers LiAngelo and LaMelo then sprinted roughshod over Santa Margarita and Inglewood in the first two rounds by respective scores of 100-66 and 112-78.
But Friday night, while playing as the hosts in a “neutral site” Ayala High gymnasium located about 10 minutes north of their own campus, things were supposed be considerably tougher for Coach Steve Baik’s crew.
After all, they would be taking on the preeminent program west of Chicago – at the very least – in Santa Ana Mater Dei, which has won 22 Southern Section and 11 state titles in Gary McKnight’s first 34 seasons as the Monarchs’ head honcho.
And they took a 27-3 record into the game that included 10 consecutive victories, the last two of which came by margins of 12 and 15 points, respectively, over Montebello Cantwell-Sacred Heart and Corona Centennial.
But the Huskies wasted little time in hitting their visitors high and hard – and at a rapid-fire pace – en route to an eased-up 102-54 victory.
That Chino Hills knocked off the program that eliminated the Huskies from the first two SS Open playoffs (in the 2014 final in the Honda Center and a year ago in the quarterfinals) wasn’t particularly surprising.
The stunner was the ease and dominance in which the Huskies handed a McKnight-coached Mater Dei team its most lopsided-ever defeat.
Just a minute and 20 seconds into action in front of a packed-to-the-gills crowd of 2,200-plus, the Huskies had forced four Mater Dei turnovers and were up, 12-zip.
And the rest of the 32 minutes – eight of which were played with a “running clock” in the fourth quarter since the Huskies had easily crashed the 40-point advantage needed to trigger it – were an orgy of You Tube highlights.
It was 33-6 after the first quarter and 46-9 with two minutes to go in the second quarter before the Monarchs “rallied”, a bit, to get to within 56-25 at intermission.
But the onslaught continued in the third quarter, when Lonzo Ball scored 14 of his eventual 25 points and the advantage crossing the 50-point threshold (at 89-38) via a LaMelo Ball lob to Elizjah Scott for one of the seemingly dozen or so dunks Chino Hills had on the night.
Baik sent his starters to the bench with about three minutes to go.
Lonzo finished with 25 points, 11 assists, eight steals and eight rebounds while LiAngelo (better known as “Gelo”) scored 35 points (24 in the first) half and the precocious 14-year-old freshman, LaMelo, added 10 points and seven assists.
Scott had 23 points and another freshman, 6-foot-9 Onyeka Okongwu, had eight points, five blocked shots and six rebounds.
I credited Mater Dei with 25 turnovers (although the Monarchs’ stats crew had 31) and Oregon-bound post M.J. Cage scored a team-high 16 points for the Monarchs, who must now wait to State Southern Open regional action to begin on March 11 for their next game.
The Huskies, who have scored at least 100 points in 16 games, will take on the division’s No. 3 seed in Chatsworth Sierra Canyon next Saturday night (March 5) for the championship in the Honda Center in Anaheim.
The Trailblazers scored a minor upset of sorts by knocking off No. 2 seed Torrance Bishop Montgomery (the 2015 Open champion), 78-69, at Simi Valley High in the San Fernando Valley.
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