Ten nights after taking on the No. 1 team in the state, the La Mirada High boys’ basketball squad takes on No. 2 St. John Bosco Friday night (6 o’clock) during the semifinals of the Braves’ Varsity Winter Classic on the SJB campus.
Coach Randy Oronoz’ Matadores improved to 10-1 Wednesday night with their 74-54 decision against Hesperia (1-4), behind the 27 points — including three 3s — from 6-foot-5 freshman Gene Roebuck (pictured) and 17 from 6-3 junior Julien Gomez.
The Scorpions of Coach Bobby Tossetti (who got 11 points from freshman forward Jasiah Williams and 10 from junior guard Mark Jones) have played one of the state’s toughest schedules, having also lost to Roosevelt, St. Bernard, and Campbell Hall.
La Mirada’s only loss came to defending state Open Division champion Harvard-Westlake (83-68) on Nov. 28 during the Ryse Williams/Pacific Shores at Redondo High.
St. John Bosco cruised past Fairmont Prep, 78-34, Wednesday in its second pool-play game to improve to 5-0, junior forward Kade Bonam and sophomore guard Brandon McCoy Jr. leading the way with 20 and 14 points, respectively.
Friday night’s (7:30) other semifinal was set up by way of the other pool-play victories Wednesday by Windward (60-56 against another one-loss and ranked-team, Rancho Cucamonga) and Long Beach Poly (60-53 over Crean Lutheran).
Windward (7-1) had a “tooth and nail” battle (I pulled that idiom out of my back pocket for the first time in a long while) in knocking off Rancho Cucamonga and its terrific junior guard, Aaron Glass.
The 6-3 Glass scored 23 points, the last of three of those coming on a shot from well beyond the arc that cut the Wildcats’ advantage to two points with 7.1 seconds remaining.
But the Cougars had just one team foul at the time, meaning they needed to foul four more times (minus a Windward turnover) to force free throws to get the ball back.
They couldn’t force a turnover, and, on the fifth foul, junior Jeremiah Hampton was sent to the free-throw line with 2.6 seconds to go.
And the 6-4 left hander swished both attempts for his 20th and 21st points to lock up the victory.
Windward also got 14 points from junior point guard Gavin Hightower.
Long Beach Poly got a career-high 26 points from 6-3, left-handed junior Austin Unegbu to improve to 4-4 despite playing without its best player, 6-5 junior Jovani Ruff (ankle sprain), for the third game in a row.
FYI: Assistant coaches from seven NCAA Division-I affiliated programs (Loyola Marymount, San Diego State, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, USC, Seattle and Washington) watched all or portions of the four games played at SJB Wednesday.
The Poly and Windward teams played a week ago (last Friday, at Redondo High), with the Wildcats prevailing, 73-63.
The championship game is set for Saturday night at 7:30.
La Mirada, St. John Bosco and Windward are in the 16-team Platinum Division (tipping off at 10 a.m. on Dec. 27) in the Classic at Damien.
In other notable matchups Friday:
*Damien (9-1) faces host Riverside Poly (6-1) in the 7 p.m. championship game of the Riverside Kiwanis Tournament.
*St. Anthony (8-1) and Redondo (5-0) hook up at Beverly Hills at 6:30.
The action at Beverly Hills starts at 3:30 with Crossroads (4-1) vs. San Diego (2-5), followed by Lynwood (5-2) and Price (5-4) at 5, with Sierra Canyon (6-1) and Bakersfield Centennial (3-1).
*JSerra (9-0) faces Foothill (5-3) at Corona del Mar at 8 o’clock, and is back in the same building Saturday night (7:30) for a contest another quality Orange County-based program, Pacifica Christian (5-3 before its Friday night, 7, home game vs. Penisula).
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