PASADENA – Some – or, more accurately, many – may have looked at Saturday night’s Rancho Christian-Sierra Canyon boys’ basketball game at Pasadena City College as a “sneak preview” of the Feb. 23 CIF Southern Section Open Division champion game.
Well, if that does prove to be the case, that’s going to prove to be a heck of a showdown at Cal Baptist University in Riverside.
That was certainly the case at PCC Saturday night.
Rancho Christian, trailing by nine points after Scotty Pippen Jr.’s layup with a little less than four minutes to go, scored the final 12 points and knocked off the Trailblazers, 61-58, in front of a near-capacity crowd and KDOC television audience.
Coach Ray Barefield’s team got sensational efforts from junior Dominick Harris (a game-23 points) and sophomore Luke Turner (15) as the Eagles (24-4) secured the No. 1 seed in the eight-team, pool-play Southern Section Open field that is set for release by the Southern Section administration at noon Sunday.
The Trailblazers (24-3), who suffered their first loss to a California opponent since falling to Mater Dei (55-53) last March 2 in the SS Open final at Long Beach State, will be the No. 2 overall seed atop the four-team “B” pool.
The playoffs get underway Friday night and, under the new SS Open format, Rancho Christian and Sierra Canyon will be hosts for each of their respective three pool-play games.
With the Mobley Brothers (senior Isaiah and junior Evan) never being allowed any offensive rhythm by the collective defensive effort of Sierra Canyon, Coach Andre Chevalier’s Trailblazers seemed well in control of the outcome before that stunning closing burst by the Eagles.
Pippen (who finished with a team-high 22 points) closed the third quarter with two free throws and a layup with six seconds to go to put his squad up, 48-45.
A monstrous block by K.J. Martin of a layup attempt by Harris set up a 3-point jump shot by junior forward Terren Frank (playing for the first time since the first week of the season for a knee injury that eventually required surgery to repair) to push Sierra Canyon’s edge to six points.
Rancho Christian traded four free throws (two apiece by Harris and Jaden Byers) for a couple of Martin slams that were set up by passes from Pippen and fabulous freshman Amari Bailey.
Martin then hit one of two free throws with 4:10 to go and his layup on the next possession for that nine-point edge.
Who’d have thought that was going to be the last scoring the Trailblazers were going to do?
Turner (PICTURED) started the 12-0 run for the Eagles with a 3 from the left corner and, after a turnover, Isaiah Mobley hit his younger brother for a dunk.
After a Pippen turnover, Isaiah Mobley scored along the right baseline and, at the other end, blocked a shot attempt by Cassius Stanley and controlled the rebound.
Then came perhaps the most decisive of a lot of consequential “plays” on the night:
Evan Mobley (who missed seven of 10 shots from the field and scored what may have been a career-low six points) was double-teamed on the right side of the lane but had the patience to not rush a shot attempt but deliver an on-target pass into Turner’s “shooting pocket” in the right corner for his fourth 3 and the go-ahead – to stay, as it turned out – bucket with 1:36 remaining.
A Sierra Canyon turnover followed by a Christian Koloko block of Evan Mobley put the ball into Pippen’s hands and he was fouled with 41 seconds to go.
He missed both free throws but Bailey came up with the rebound on the second attempt.
He got the ball to Stanley, who drove and slipped in the lane where upon an official make a surprising call of “held ball” (with the possession arrow on the Trailblazers’ side) in stead of what it should have been called – traveling or a Rancho Christian foul.
Stanley’s inbound pass was deflected by Evan Mobley and caught by Frank – who had a foot out of bounds at the time, giving the possession to the Eagles with 22.9 seconds to go.
After consecutive Sierra Canyon following inbound passes, Turner hit the first of a 1-and-1 opportunity to push the Eagles’ advantage to two points.
After a Stanley miss, junior guard Jordan Montgomery hit the first of his 1-and-1 chance for a three-point edge.
With no Sierra Canyon timeouts remaining, Pippen pushed the ball in transition, pump-faked Isaiah Mobley just behind the 3-point arc but was sell short on the shot with Montgomery rebounding and dribbling out the last couple of seconds for the win.
Leave a Reply