ETIWANDA, Ca – The Etiwanda High boys’ basketball team hit two quarter buzzer-beating 3-pointers Friday night in its Baseline League game against the Damien High Spartans.
The first of those, from about 40-feet out by sophomore guard Jimmy Baker, stunned the pandemic-reduced sparse crowd.
The second, from about 20 feet away by senior post Darvelle Wyatt after a pass from classmate Jahmai Mashack, ignited a Wyatt-led sprint by the winning Eagles into their team room, along the baseline and near the Spartans’ bench.
The 56-53 decision gave Coach David Kleckner’s team a second down-to-the-wire victory over the Spartans – who’ve won the other 20 games on their schedule against non-Etiwanda competition.
Etiwanda is 6-0 with no games outside of Baseline League competition in a season that, like much of life over the past 14 months or so, has been thrown for a whack by COVID-19.
The Eagles – who had more than a week “pause” in their early practices because of positive test results – didn’t play their first game until the 64-60 win against Damien in La Verne on April 20.
Barring any non-league additions to their schedule (and that’s a regular occurrence, even with two weeks to go in the non-playoff portion of the season), the Eagles have just Baseline games remaining at Los Osos on Tuesday and at home to Rancho Cucamonga and Upland on May 18 and 21, respectively.
One Baseline League member, the Chino Hills Huskies, ended their season earlier in the week because of COVID-19 issues, costing the other five league teams their second-round games with them.
In the absence of any “upsets” over the final two weeks of the regular season (and Damien did pick up another non-Baseline League game earlier Friday when it replaced Mater Dei as the Santa Monica opponent at 4 o’clock in Saturday’s State Preview at Colony), the Eagles and Spartans are strong candidates to help make up the CIF Southern Section’s eight-team Open Division field.
The first four Open “pool play” games are set to begin on May 28.
Malik Thomas, a 6-foot-4, USC-bound guard who is Damien’s all-time leading scorer, had 26 points against Etiwanda despite being checked by multiple defenders.
He was even more of a chore for the Eagles Friday night, scoring 34 points – 13 in the fourth quarter and seven of those coming after Mashack’s rebound and layup put his team up by seven with 2:38 remaining.
Kleckner called time out immediately after Mashack’s follow shot in order to organize his defense.
It appeared to pay dividends, as Thomas was called for charging into a defender on his dribble with 2:10 to go.
But, the Eagles’ next four possessions resulted in a pass that ended in Damien hands; an ill-advised jumper early into the shot clock by Mashack; the missed front end of a 1-and-1 by reserve Kwinten Crenshaw and another much-too-early-in-the clock jumper by Marcus Green.
Thomas converted the turnover and Mashack’s miss into layups, and Green’s startling attempt and miss into a 22-footer in front of his bench for the tying points with 34 seconds to go.
Kleckner signaled for a timeout after the Eagles dribbled beyond the mid-court line to remind his team what he expected when play resumed.
He didn’t want Thomas getting an opportunity to get a chance to knock off his team in regulation.
“Thomas is phenomenal,” Kleckner said afterward. “He scores in so many ways and hits so many difficult shots. What can you do? He’s a heck of a player.”
So, “we were either going to win it on that possession or we were going into overtime,” he added.
Green inbounded to Mashack from across the court, opposite the scorers’ table and methodically dribble toward the top of the key-extended while being defended by Chris Nickelberry, a long-time teammate of Mashack’s with the Prodigy Elite club program.
With less than 10 seconds to go, Mashack appeared to be dribbling Nickelberry into a back screen about to be set by the hefty – we’re talking Pac 12 Conference offensive left tackle dimensions – Wyatt, but then Wyatt flared to the right of the key as Thomas tried to cut off Mashack, who may have had an angle on Nickelberry.
But the University of Tennessee-bound Mashack snapped a pass to Wyatt who cashed in on the unimpeded view of the rim that he’s probably shot at in multiples of thousands of attempts during his four years at Etiwanda.
Wyatt and Green led the Eagles with 15 points apiece, while Mashack and Wyatt collected 11 rebounds each.
Damien’s 6-7 sophomore Jimmy Oladokun grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked three shots – despite missing most of the second and third quarters after picking up his third and personal fouls, respectively.
Leave a Reply