CORONA – The Centennial High Huskies make one final – and decisive – on-court retort Tuesday night to anyone still buying into the theory that there was any Southern California-based boys’ basketball team capable of beating them.
Coach Josh Giles’ squad scored the first nine points of the game – via two deep 3s by the most underrated senior guard in Southern California and another by the best 6-foot-9 junior in the west – and cruised past the visiting Sierra Canyon, 83-59, in front of a filled to the brim (950, give or take) gymnasium and Spectrum viewing audience.
Centennial (32-1, while extending its win streak to 29) has one more roadblock to a State Open championship via Modesto Christian (30-5) in Saturday night’s 8 o’clock final in Sacramento’s Golden 1 Center.
Even while facing a program with two McDonald’s All-American (Amari Bailey and Kijani Wright, bound for UCLA and USC, respectively) that was coming off a 17-point Southern Regional Open semifinal win at Harvard-Westlake Saturday night, the Huskies treated Coach Andre Chevalier’s squad with the same approach as they had their five post-season opponents:
They dominated the Trailblazers (26-5) thoroughly, sprinting to a 14-point advantage at intermission and never allowing that advantage to be cut to fewer than 13 points in a third quarter that ended with the Huskies up by 19.
In Sectional (Bishop Montgomery, Damien, Crean Lutheran and Harvard-Westlake) and Regional (Bishop Montgomery, again, and Sierra Canyon) play, Centennial’s average margin of victory has been 26.5 points, with the Sectional final vs. Harvard-Westlake (68-48) the most “competitive” of the contests.
Ramsey Huff – whose scholarship “offers” (he has two from NCAA Division II-affiliated programs so far) should grow, rapidly – hit two of those deep 3s in the 9-zip start, added another in the first quarter and one more in the second scoring 14 of eventual 18 points by intermission.
Devin Williams – the aforementioned “best” 6-9 junior in the West class of 2023 – added another corner 3 in the fourth quarter while finishing with 18 points, six rebounds and seven blocked shots.
And his classmate up front, 6-7 Aaron McBride, also played a huge part in helping the Huskies crush the Trailblazers up front with 13 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots.
The top “shooting guard” in the 2023 class in the West, Jared McCain (pictured), was only four of 13 from the field (for 12 points) but was terrific elsewhere by way of a game-high 14 rebounds to go with four assists and quality decision making against the visitors’ full- and half-court pressure.
And University of New Mexico-bound Donovan Dent, who shared the Southern Section Open Player of the Year honor last June with Bailey, continued to demonstrate why he’s best guard in the state with 18 points, eight assists, six rebounds and three steals despite a sore knee.
Bailey, with UCLA head (Mick Cronin) and assistant (Mike Lewis) coaches looking on, missed seven of 10 shots in the first half but got to the rim with more consistency in the second half to finish with 17 points in the final game of a superb four-year high school career.
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