SANTA ANA, Ca. – Two rounds into pool play, only two of the eight teams in the CIF Southern Section Boys’ Basketball Open Division field have been eliminated from a spot in the June 11 championship game.
Top-seed Sierra Canyon (82-70, after trailing by 17 points in the second quarter) and No. 4 Etiwanda (48-46, in a wire-to-wire struggle) toppled Ribet Academy and St. John Bosco, respectively, Tuesday night.
With the Trailblazers and Eagles having won both of their Pool A games, the winner of their game (at Sierra Canyon in Chatsworth) Friday night will advance to the title game.
Ribet Academy and the Braves – each 0-2 in pool action – will play at Ribet Friday night for, in essence, seeding advantages in either the Open or Division I of the Southern Regional playoffs.
With host Mater Dei knocking off Harvard-Westlake (62-57) Tuesday night, each of the Pool B teams have split their pool games.
Here’s how the Pool B championship representative will be decided:
*No. 2 Centennial (it lost to Harvard-Westlake and beat Damien) goes if it beats the visiting Monarchs Friday night while Damien beats visiting HW;
*Mater Dei gets the June 11 slot if it wins in Corona Friday while Harvard-Westlake knocks off Damien in La Verne;
*Damien needs to beat Harvard-Westlake coupled with a Mater Dei win;
*And the Harvard-Westlake road to a June 11 game has to be paved with a Wolverines’ win at Damien coupled with a Centennial victory against the Monarchs.
Tuesday night Mater Dei improved to 27-2 by way of the dominance of its’ 6-foot-9ish duo of Harrison Hornery (pictured) and Nick Davidson, coupled with the solid contributions at both ends of the floor from pretty much everyone else Gary McKnight and his staff put on the floor for the Monarchs.
Despite being hugged defensively nearly start-to-finish, Hornery (who finished with 26 points) and Davidson (22, all over the first three quarters) drilled four 3s apiece to help their team go up at intermission, 36-31 at intermission.
They also did a superb job of passing – to one another and for the relatively few shot attempts by guys not named Davidson or Hornery – while combining for seven assists.
The Monarchs were secure with the ball until getting it where they wanted (hint: to Davidson or Hornery, reasonably deep into the shot clock), committing just six turnovers to the visitors’ 14.
And their half-court defense kept primary perimeter offensive threats, senior Adam Hinton and junior Cameron Thrower (a combined nine points on the evening) from getting many clean looks at jumpers or drives.
Sophomore forward Brady Dunlap scored 15 points (via five of eight from the field, including a 3, while knocking in four free throws) to keep his team to within a five-point deficit at intermission.
He scored on a drive on the first possession of the second half (he was fouled, too, but miss the free throw).
But he didn’t get his next – and final – bucket until 19 seconds remained and his team trailed by seven points.
Junior Gabriel Quiette – who, with classmate Kaden Minter, split 12 of the Monarchs’ 14 “non-Hornery or Davidson points” – did a good job of preventing Dunlap from getting open for his jump shot, or locking into his space when he did get the ball into his hands in the second half.
Senior center Truman Gettings (four of six from the field and two free throws), with 10 points, was the only other Wolverine to score in double figures.
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