ONTARIO – The Roosevelt High boys’ basketball team’s “Big 3” – with a lot of help – was plenty good enough Saturday night in the Toyota Arena to give the Mustangs their first-ever CIF Southern Section Open Division championship.
Seniors Brayden Burries, Myles Walker and Issac Williamson combined for all but 21 of their team’s points in the 74-67 victory over Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks.
Along with all the championship hardware they left the building with for the short drive back to Eastvale, the Mustangs (32-2) undoubtedly also earned the No. 1 seed for the Open Division State Southern Regionals.
The Knights (26-7) will be the No. 2 Open seed and, like the Mustangs, are expected to earn a bye into next Saturday night’s semifinals.
The brackets for all the State regional brackets are expected to be unveiled late Sunday afternoon.
In the Boys Division 1 final earlier Saturday evening, the Los Alamitos Griffins took a 13-point lead early in the third quarter before holding off Mira Costa, 63-60.
The Griffins (25-8) – winning their first Southern Section boys’ title in 18 years – and Mustangs (29-4) will land in the Division I bracket and open regional play Tuesday night.
Roosevelt lost to eventual State Open champion Harvard-Westlake in the sectional and regional finals a year ago.
And – with Burries, Walker and Williamson juniors on that squad – everyone connected with Coach Steve Singleton’s program knew that nothing short of a return to the sectional title game would have been a major disappoint this season.
But the Mustangs are counting on three more games this season, culminating in the State Open final in Sacramento on March 15.
“This is just another step in the right direction,” Burries said, after recovering from a 1 of six shooting performance in the first half to score 12 third-quarter points and finish with 19 points, eight rebounds three assists and three steals.
That the Mustangs were up, 37-32, at intermission – despite the McDonald’s All-American’s shooting performance – was a nifty illustration of how effective his near life-long buddies, Walker and Williamson, were in the first 16 minutes.
Walker and Williamson combined for 21 points, six assists and five steals – and just one turnover – before halftime.
The Knights lost to Roosevelt, 76-58, in the Dec. 21 Platinum championship game of the Tarkanian Classic.
But Coach Matt Sargeant’s team, despite falling behind nine points a minute into the third quarter, didn’t allow the Mustangs to run away from them as was the case at Bishop Gorman.
Dynamic and powerful junior forward Tyran Stokes – who finished with 21 points, 13 rebounds and five assists – was one of fourth Knights who scored in double figures.
And they took their first lead (at 55-54) since midway through the first quarter via a Stokes bucket 35 seconds into the fourth quarter.
They could have padded the advantage to three points following a Roosevelt turnover, but Stokes missed two free throws and Williamson (who finished with 15 points) got behind the defense for layup and the Mustangs never trailed again.
Burries (with 4:49 to go), junior Jackson Haggins (3:36), Walker (his fifth, at 2:48) and Williamson (off a down screen and pass from Walker, at 1:02) hit four 3s down the stretch.
Haggins and Walker – with two free throws apiece – closed out their scoring.
And the “X” factor for the winners was a freshman (who came from Kentucky) who didn’t show up on campus until September.
And 6-4 Cameron Anderson – in 17 minutes off the bench – scored nine points.
The Knights shot nearly 60 percent from the field but that was negated by 13 turnovers and missing seven of 13 free throws.
In the girls’ Open Division final to close out Saturday’s six games, top-ranked Ontario Christian held off a fourth-quarter rally from No. 2 Etiwanda to prevail, 65-63.
Freshman Tati Griffin led the Knights with 29 points and 12 rebounds.
As the case with Roosevelt and Notre Dame in the boys field, they will be the top two seeds in the Regional Open bracket.
In the boys D 1 final, seniors Wesley Trevino (15 points) and Trent Minter (14 points and 11 rebounds) were two of four Griffins to score in double figures.
Mira Costa – which got 17 points from senior forward Eneasi Piuleini and 13 from senior guard Christian Kranz – tied the score at 54 when Luke Hammerschmidt hit one of two free throws with 4:26 to go.
But Samori Guyness hit a mid-range pull-up jumper with 3:51 remaining.
After a Mira Costa, junior forward Tyler Lopez (13 points, three assists and four steals) scored on a drive from the right side.
McCarthy Bedner was fouled while missing a 3 and hit all three free throws with 2:50 to play for Mira Costa.
The Mustangs got to within a point on a 3 by Kranz with 8.9 seconds to go but, after a couple of times the Griffins got the ball into Trevino for two free throws for the final margin.
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