FULLERTON – The No.’s 5 and 6 teams in the BurlisonOnBasketball SoCal Top 70 will hook up in Saturday night’s (7:30) 7th Rumble on the Hill championship game at Sunny Hills High.
Suffice to say, there was much more doubt about No. 6 reaching the title affair than there was No. 5.
In the second semifinal Friday night, No. 5 – the Damien Spartans – jumped out to a 17-0 advantage after one quarter against the La Habra Highlanders.
And that was more than enough cushion to hold off a sizzling second-half performance from junior guard Acen Jimenez, 64-45, behind 7-foot Nate Garcia’s 26 points, 13 rebounds, four assists and three blocked shots. He was perfect on 12 layup attempts while hitting two of six free throws.
In the first semifinal, No. 6 – the La Mirada Matadores – fell behind by 12 points to Anaheim Canyon, 21-19, after Brandon Benjamin’s buzzer-beating, 3-pointer.
The Matadores dug themselves out of so many figurative holes over just short of 40 minutes of playing time before finally catching, and going ahead to stay – 80-78 – via a deep 3 from the right wing with about four seconds from 6-4 senior M.J. Smith, about eight seconds after Benjamin had put the Comanches ahead via a nifty drive and score against Smith.
The lead changed hands 10 times in the second half – seven of those in the second, four-minute extra period.
Benjamin, a 6-5 senior who was the Orange County Player of the Year as a Canyon sophomore being spending his junior season at Mater Dei, was credited (by my stat keeping) with 31 points, 15 rebounds, seven assists and three blocked shots.
But he was also pressured into seven turnovers and missed half of his 14 free throws.
The bulk of his assists came via passes to Staf Yilmazturk (four), Rami Awad (four) and Mo El Baba (two) who combined for 10 3-pointers.
La Mirada sophomore Gene Roebuck hit two of three shots (including a three) out of the chute but then missed his final nine shots of the first half – a couple of those blocked by Benjamin.
But he scored more than half of his team’s third- and fourth-quarter points (19 of 36) before being called for a fifth and disqualifying foul on a in the closing moments of regulation.
But left-handed senior Julien Gomez (19 of his 23 points after intermission, 11 of those in the overtimes) and Smith (pictured/16 points) provided just enough timely scoring to get the Matadores in position to successfully defend the tourney title Saturday night.
And they will get the squad – Damien – it beat in the final a year ago (courtesy a late comeback and outcome-deciding shot by Gomez).
Six-five junior Eli Garner – who guarded Jimenez most of the game, and helped harass Jimenez into missing his first eight field-goal attempts – scored 21 points, hitting eight of 13 from the field (including two 3s to close the first period).
The 6-1 Jimenez, who scored 34 of his team’s 49 points in its four-point decision against Orange Lutheran Wednesday night at California High in Whittier, had 25 points in the second half after scoring only via five free throws in the first half.
He assisted on four of the five field goals his teammates hit while dropping in eight of 11 field-goal attempts (including three 3s) after intermission.
In the first two games:
*Whittier 58, Sonora 52: Seniors Jayden Barrientos (24) and Brandon Romo (18) combined for all but 16 of the Cardinals’ points to help their team go 3-2. Six-three junior Tyler Holmquist scored 25 for the Raiders (1-3).
*Sunny Hills 36, South Torrance 30: Senior guard Nathan Johnson scored 17 points (11 from the free-throw lines) as the host Lancers improved to 2-2.
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