LA VERNE, Ca. – The potential match-up that excited high school hoops-following folks the most when the field for the fourth Classic at Damien was announced on Sept. 17, will take place Monday night in Damien High’s Athletic Center.
And the crowd will be SRO well before the 8:30 tip-off of the Platinum Division championship clash between defending champion Rancho Christian.
It will be the last and – obviously – most anticipated of the five divisional title games played on the Damien campus Monday in what has evolved into easily the best post-Christmas event of its kind in the west.
The Platinum finalists took different paths to advance out of their Saturday night semifinals.
Coach Andre Chevalier’s Sierra Canyon Trailblazers, top-ranked in California and No. 6 nationally, improved to 14-0 following a 57-53 decision against Etiwanda, with the game’s last five points scored by Sierra Canyon in the final 45 seconds on a layup by sophomore Shy Odom, a free throw by Odom and two more by University of Kentucky-bound B.J. Boston (pictured).
The free throws by Boston, with 7.7 seconds to go and his 30th and 31st points, came after he was fouled immediately after he made the most critical defensive play of the tourney’s first three days, picking off a Camren Pierce passed intended for Brantly Stevenson in the right corner that likely would have led to a Stevenson attempt at a game-winning jumper had the pass got into his hands instead of Boston’s.
In the second semi, Evan Mobley-led Rancho Christian improved to 13-2, leading by 19 points at intermission and 23 after three quarters while on the way to an eventual 70-58 decision against St. John Bosco.
The 7-foot, USC-bound Mobley – the consensus No. 1 player in the high school Class of 2020 – was selected the division’s Most Outstanding Player when he and now-USC freshman brother Isaiah Mobley led the Eagles to the 2018 Platinum championship, knocking off Corona Centennial in the final.
Mobley finished with 15 points (he didn’t miss in five attempts from the field while hitting five of six free throws), as many rebounds, four assists and four blocked shots despite being “rested” (he’s still recovering from a right ankle injury suffered Dec. 14) for chunks of the third and fourth quarters.
The Trailblazers, who’ve won consecutive California State Open championships, have won 22 games in a row since their final loss of the 2018-19 season – dealt them by the Mobley-led Eagles in a Feb. 2 regular-season finale, 61-58, at Pasadena City College.
Saturday night’s semifinal results also set up a high-profile third-place clash between Etiwanda and St. John Bosco (7 o’clock in the Athletic Center), both of which – like Sierra Canyon and Ranch Christian – were part of the Southern Section’s eight-team Open Division bracket last season.
In Monday’s other four division finals:
*Canyon Country Santa Clarita Christian (which continued to build on its resume for a potential spot in the 2020 SS Open field with a semifinal win against Chaminade Saturday night) faces L.A. Washington Prep, in the Athletic Center at 5:30, for the Gold crown.
*St. Francis, from near-by La Canada and led by UC Irvine-bound guard Andre Henry, takes on Maryknoll – which came to the event all the way from Honolulu – in the Silver final, also in the Athletic Center, at 4.
*The tournament finals in the Bronze and Green divisions will be held in Damien’s Event Center (separated from the Athletic Center by about a minute walk), with Moorpark playing St. Pius X/St. Matthias for Green hardware at 6:30, and West Torrance and Shadow Hills clashing for the Bronze title at 8.
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