RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Ca. – The Rancho Verde High basketball team seemingly was on its way to a decisive Inland-Empire Classic victory over Hesperia Friday night while opening up a 17-point advantage after three quarters at Rancho Cucamonga High.
But then Hesperia’s Jaden Shackelford (pictured) started knocking in jump shots – deep, deep shots.
And very high school jump shooters – anywhere – sizzle quite like the 6-foot-3 and University of Alabama-bound Shackleford does when he gets hot.
Shackelford scored 20 points – via four 3s, a drive and four free throws – in the fourth quarter, with the last of those coming by way of a couple of free throws with 9.3 seconds to go to tie the score at 54 and send things into a four-minute extra period.
But the left-handed Shackelford couldn’t convert any of his four attempts in the OT, with Tory San Antonio’s four free throws following an Anthony Thomas bucket and free throw that put Rancho Verde ahead to stay en route to a 61-54 victory.
The 6-3 San Antonio, a member of the Puerta Rican national junior team and Cal State Fullerton-bound, scored 31 points for Rancho Verde, which will take a 3-0 record into its 7 o’clock, Saturday night championship game with Etiwanda.
Etiwanda, No. 19 in the BurlisonOnBasketball pre-season SoCal Top 25, improved to 4-0 after hanging on, 68-62, over Colony in the first semifinal played Friday night.
Rancho Verde (No. 17 in the Top 25) used its half-court defense – Shackelford, primarily checked by Emmanuel Agubata, missed nine of his 10 field-goal attempts, converting just a layup and two free throws – to go up at intermission, 24-11.
Behind Antonio’s 14 third-quarter points – and despite Shackelford finally getting untracked with 10 points, including his first 3 just 11 seconds in the period – Rancho Verde wangled its 17-point edge going into the fourth quarter.
Shackelford finished with 34 points after dropping 42 the night before in a quarterfinal win against Rancho Cucamonga.
In the other semifinal Colony, with 6-3 senior Sedrick Altman scoring 13 points, went up 23-12 after the first quarter with Etiwanda.
But the Eagles – as they’ve always been apt to do under Coach David Kleckner, ratcheted up their half-court defense and got a combined 14 points from junior Camren Pierce and sophomore Jahmai Mashack to take a nine point-edge, at 36-27, at intermission.
The advantage climbed to 17 points in the fourth quarter but turnovers – Etiwanda finished with 19 of them, 14 in the second half – helped Colony get to within four points in the closing moment before Etiwanda hit just enough free throws to get things from getting too dicey.
Altman missed six of his seven shots in the second and third quarters but scoring 11 points in the final eight minutes to finish with 29 points while sophomore guard Brenton Knapper added 19 (eight in the fourth quarter, including a couple of 3s).
The bulk of Etiwanda’s roster comes from strong groups of juniors and sophomores after a senior-dominated squad won 30 games and lost in the State Southern Open Regional final last March.
Pierce scored 16 points while classmate Tyree Campbell added 13 and Mashack 10.
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