LA VERNE – Rancho Christian vs. Centennial, Part II: Twenty-eight days later . . .
The much-hoped for – certainly on the part of the Corona Centennial High Huskies – rematch of the Dec. 1 BattleZone Tournament championship game is finally officially schedule, with the setting the Athletic Center of Damien High Saturday night at 8:30 in the title game of the Platinum Division of the third Classic at Damien.
The first half of the “table” was set for matchup Friday night, when the No. 2-ranked (via the BurlisonOnBasketball Southern California Top 25) Rancho Christian Eagles improved to 13-1 by pulling away in the fourth quarter against the No. 15 Chino Hills, 79-54.
Then, in the second semifinal and finale of all of Friday’s 32 games of action, No. 5 Centennial (14-2) handed No. 3 Fairfax its first loss, 68-61.
In the programs’ first meeting of the season, the Eagles trailed by 15 points in the second quarter before rallying and coming out of the Huskies gym with a 56-54 victory.
The winning margin came via Isaiah Mobley’s two free throws with 1.2 seconds remaining.
His younger brother, Evan Mobley, had missed an in-tight attempt but officials ruled that Isaiah had been fouled on his follow attempt just before the buzzer sounded.
In the other three divisions’ championship games on Saturday on the Damien campus:
*La Canada (12-5) faces Highland (13-3) in the Athletic Center at 4 o’clock for the Silver championship;
*Alemany (12-6) takes on Valencia (12-3) in the Athletic Center at 5:30.
Valencia cruised into Saturday’s finale with a 75-56 decision against Santa Monica – despite being without leading scorer Jayden Trower, who was on crutches after suffering an injury late the day before in the second-round win over Pasadena.
Alemany needed four overtimes – as in an extra 16 minutes of playing time – and a buzzer-beating 3 by Paraclete transfer guard Jonathan Daniels to edge Colony, 88-87, to get its championship berth.
*In the Event Center (about a two-minute, on-campus stroll from the Athletic Center), San Marcos of Santa Barbara (7-5, with six consecutive wins) is matched with Mark Keppel (10-6) at 5 o’clock for the Bronze Division hardware.
Rancho Christian knocked off Chino Hills and 2018 State Player of the Year Onyeka Okongwu, 72-67, in a Nov. 30 BattleZone semifinal.
The Eagles were much crisper from the start of the rematch, as The Twin Towers of Mobley anchored a zone that made it tough of Okongwu to catch a pass in the post area and to maneuver freely once he did, while also extended just enough perimeter pressure to reasonably harass the Chino Hills jump shooters.
But the Huskies did have an opportunity to trim their deficit to six points with just less than five minutes but senior guard Anthony Bell mis-fired on a rushed 3 and the dam was tramped by Evan and Isaiah thereafter.
Evan Mobley turned in an overwhelming “This is why so many believe he’s the No. 1 junior in America”-performance with 32 points (14 of 16 from the field), 20 rebounds, five blocked shots and three assists.
His USC-bound brother – their dad, Trojans’ assistant coach Eric Mobley, was sitting courtside while mom Nicol was in the stats with the other RC parents – went for 13 points, eight rebounds, five assists and three blocked shots.
Okongwu – a long-time Compton Magic teammate of the brothers – seemed doubtful for the game because of an ankle injury after a hard spill suffered late in his team’s second-round win over Notre Dame-Riverside Thursday.
Okongwu, another future Trojan, gave it a go, though he didn’t have his usual lateral quickness or vertical explosiveness.
And he suffered two more falls, this time in shot-block attempts, the first on his back and the second, with just less than three minutes to go and his down 15 points, on his head while fouling Evan Mobley.
He got up reasonably quickly but said by text late Friday night that he was going to be held out of his team’s Saturday third-place game with Fairfax.
He finished with 13 points (5 of 11 from the field), eight rebounds, four assists and three blocked shots.
In the second semifinal, Centennial was able to pressure the Fairfax shooters, contain the Lions’ drivers pretty well and not allow much in the way of second-shot opportunities.
And the Huskies got their usual strong effort from the perimeter trio of Jaylen Clark (15 points and nine rebounds), D.J. Davis (15 points, including four 3s) and Paris Dawson (13 points) with strong support fellow starters Dennis Cash (seven of his eight points in the second half) and Allan McBride (six points) as well as “sixth man” Courtland Moffat (11 points).
Fairfax senior Ethan Anderson scored 16 of his game-high 23 points after intermission but couldn’t get his team closer than within four points in that stretch.
For Saturday’s complete final-day schedule (and updated, with some revisions), go to www.theclassicatdamien.com
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