Foothill 18-1 after holding on for win vs. Villa Park

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SANTA ANA, CA – “Momentum”, in sports (like pretty much in every other aspect of life), can be fickle.

Tuesday night, in a Crestview League boys basketball game at Foothill High, it was down-right abrupt in its switch of allegiance.

The host Knights – having doubled the score on visiting Villa Park Spartans – had already gone 10-deep in substitutes as the fourth quarter began with multiple reserves on the floor.

But the Spartans, who had missed 20 of 29 shots from the floor and committed 13 turnovers over the first 24 minutes, finally started knocking in jump shots – with a few nifty drives mixed in.

By the time Foothill Coach Yousof Etemadi could get his starters back on the floor (with about three minutes to go), that momentum was at the heels of the Spartans.

With a couple of terrific sophomores (6-foot-7 Dakari Harris and guard Jayden Baude, who combined for half of their team’s 30 fourth-quarter points) doing a lot to drive that momentum, the visitors pared their deficit to five points with 37 seconds remaining.

But Isaiah Bernard (pictured) brought the hammer down twice – via right-handed slams in transition, once after the Knights broke the Spartans’ full-court pressure and the other after a steal – and the Knights finally had their 18^th victory, 65-56.

Bernard (a 6-4 junior who played little on the varsity as a sophomore at Santa Margarita last season) had scored 19 points with nine rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots before going to the bench – seemingly, at the time, for good – with a minute to go in the third quarter.

The fourth quarter “slippage” of sorts never reached total collapse-mode – the likes of Bernard (who finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds), Carlo Billings and the rest of Etemadi’s starters saw to that.

And the 18-1 start (the loss came to San Clemente, 45-39, on the Dec. 5 opening of the Corona del Mar) is more evidence that, under Etemadi, the Foothill’s program has evolved into one of the best in Orange County – and beyond.

After he was hired in the spring of 2019 (after he had served as the interim coach at Northwood in Irvine), the Knights went 11-16 – a pickup of four wins, and five fewer loses, over the previous season.

But then the progress wasn’t quite as subtle, with Knights going 19-5 (losing in the second round of the playoffs) in the 2020-21 “spring COVID season”.

Billings was a sophomore at the time and he older brother Cruz were among the Foothill players who didn’t allow the pandemic to slow down their progress, individually or collectively, when the season the “winter” portion of the season was put on hold because of the pandemic.

“We worked hard every day, mostly on black tops (outdoor, asphalt courts, with medal backboards and chain “nets” hanging from the rims),” he said Tuesday night, after had contributed 10 points, six assists and six rebounds to his team’s 13^th consecutive win that improved its league record to 2-0.

“We really grew as players and as a team – we really got close.”

And that carried into 2021-22 – after the pandemic had subsided enough to return to the traditional “winter-spring” schedule.

The Knights shared the league title with Anaheim Canyon and took a 24-2 record into the CIF Southern Section 2AA playoffs, where they beat Palm Springs, Marina, and Cajon by a collective 49 points before losing at home to Long Beach Poly in a semifinal.

But, since they had gotten to the semifinals and secured a spot in the State Southern Regional playoffs, their season wasn’t over.

Fast forward, after four wins, bagging a trip to Sacramento, where they lost to Elk Grove in their first-ever state championship game appearance.

The program’s success over the past two seasons resulted in the Knights being elevated to the CIF SS’s top division – I – for this season.

The post-season competition will be considerably more challenging.

But don’t doubt that the Knights will be prepared for it, even with a lineup that includes just one returning starter – Billings, now the leader of a team depending on transfers such as Bernard and Travis Paleo (Orange Lutheran), as well as a rapidly improving junior varsity team graduates, notably 6-9 sophomore in Danny Kennard.

And now, they have a healthy – if still a bit underweight – Billings.

Shortly after his team had knocked off Open Division contender Rancho Christian (three days before RC toppled Sierra Canyon) on Nov. 23, Billings was diagnosed with mononucleosis.

By the time he was cleared to return to the floor (for a Dec. 16, non-league game with Tustin), the 6-foot Billings weighed 150 pounds – 26 fewer than what he checked in against Rancho Christian.

“I had it all: fever, aches, terrible sore throat,” Billings said.

He’s re-gained 14 of those pounds and his teammates – with 10 regular-season games remaining, including a Jan. 27 rematch with their Canyon (which they knocked off in Anaheim last Friday night, 56-53) – seem to have the pieces in place for another lengthy post-season experience.

And it’s not a stretch to suggest that the Knights would be 19-0 if not for Billings’ bout with mono, since they toppled San Clemente, 65-50, 17 days later and with Billings back in the lineup.

But those aren’t topics of conversation in and around the program.

“We just go hard every day in practice,” Billings said. “Our coaches are on us about getting better every day, improving as players and as a team.”