Braves tested but remain unbeaten after rally

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BELLFLOWER – The giddy days of beating folks by nearly 36 points per game were always going to be short-lived, as St. John Bosco High boys’ basketball coach Matt Dunn would have been the first to attest.

And that was demonstrated succinctly Wednesday night, as the host Braves – trailing by three points in the fourth quarter – got all 10 points in the final period from a dandy pair of sophomores to hold off a one-win, Long Beach Poly team, 52-48, in a quarterfinal of the Braves’ Varsity Winter Classic.

The Braves – whose tightest winning margin before Wednesday in their first six games was 15 points – advanced to a Friday night semifinal against Walnut, which also remained unbeaten (after nine games) as senior guard Malik Khouzam scored 32 points in a tighter-than-the-final-score indicates, 81-72, decision against Riverside Hillcrest.

Hillcrest – which plays Poly in a fifth-place semifinal Friday – got its own 32-point effort from sophomore guard McKel Shedrick.

The Braves committed 19 turnovers and shot (collectively, at least) poorly against an opponent that had lost four of its first five games prior to Thursday – albeit, with of those defeats coming to unbeaten foes and the other to a gifted Windward squad.

Coach Shelton Diggs – for whom just one senior, guard Kairi Shepherd, gets significant playing time – has reason to feel at least guarded optimism with Moore League action about to get underway next week before his team returns to the Dec. 27-30 Classic at Damien.

But the Jackrabbits, too, suffered with their ball security Wednesday while committing 20 turnovers – a couple in the final minute that set the stage for the late-game efforts of SJB sophomores Kade Bonam (21 points – six down the stretch – and eight rebounds) and Elzie Harrington (11 points, four in the final 22 seconds).

The Jackrabbits got 12 points from uber-aggressive junior Cash Stokely, and 10 more from sophomore Jovani Ruff.

In the other quarterfinals Thursday night, unbeaten Rancho Cucamonga takes on La Mirada and its dynamic sophomore guard, Julien Gomez, while Mayfair faces Chino.