Burlison on Basketball

Frank Burlison | High School Basketball | College Basketball

Two rematches on tap Tuesday for trips to SacTown

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EASTVALE – A couple of Tuesday night rematches of CIF Southern Section playoff games will determine which boys basketball teams will represent the South in next Friday and Saturday night’s Division I and Open championship games in Sacramento.

Redondo Union (28-5), following its 72-66 against visiting and Bay League rival Mira Costa, travels to the San Fernando Valley Tuesday for the D-I final against Sierra Canyon (25-7).

The Trailblazers, who needed two overtimes to beat visiting JSerra, 68-64, knocked off Redondo Union in overtime, 69-66, during a Feb. 12, CIF SS Open Division playoff opener.

And, in the Open Division finale, top seed and CIF SS Open champion and 33-2 Roosevelt will play host to Sherman Oaks Notre Dame for a slot vs. the North representative in the title game in the Golden 1 Center (home to the NBA’s Kings).

The Mustangs – who toppled Notre Dame in the March 1 Southern Section championship in Ontario’s Toyota Arena, 76-67 – spotted two-time, defending state Open champion Harvard-Westlake a couple of eight-point leads in the first quarter before pulling away from the Wolverines, 71-59.

The Knights (28-7) got their Tuesday rematch with Roosevelt by overcoming the 48-point effort of McDonald’s All-American and California’s career scoring leader Tounde Yessoufou in their 66-64 decision over host St. Joseph in Santa Maria.

Another McD’s AA, Brayden Burries, scored 29 points and grabbed eight rebounds, while point guard Myles Walker added 20 points with four steals as Roosevelt got its spot in the regional final by beating the program that defeated the Mustangs in both the sectional and regional Open championship games a year ago.

But it was the collective effort at both ends of the floor – and, often, while diving on the floor – that propelled Coach Steve Singleton’s team to at least one more practice (Monday) and game.

Singleton gave Burries the defensive assignment against yet another McD’s AA, Duke-bound Nikolas Khamenia, to start the game “because Brayden gave us the best size (at about three inches shorter) against him,” Singleton said.

But the multi-skilled Khamenia – who can be listed at 6-foot-8 without drawing any sneers from size skeptics – forced Singleton to rapidly adjust his defensive approach.

After junior teammate Joe Sterling hit a 15-footer for the game’s first points, Khamenia hit three shots in a row (with another junior, Amir Jones, adding 3, after his first bucket), the last of those a 3 from out top to put his team up, 12-4, and force Singleton to call a timeout with a bit more than three minutes into play.

That’s when he assigned 6-2 Issac Williamson – as good a 1-on-1 defender as there is in Southern California – the task of trying to check Khamenia.

Khamenia hit eight- and 12-footers – his fourth and five consecutive field goals – when play resumed, and closed with his third assist of the quarter, on a bucket by Isaiah Carroll.

But the Mustangs had closed to within 26-22 on a buzzer-beating layup by Burries (following a steal by Walker).

A 3-pointer by Dominic Copenhagen (off a pass from Burries) put them ahead– at 29-28 – with about 5:30 to go. The 6-3 senior may have turned in his best-ever all-around effort, with 12 points and a game-high 10 rebounds, as well as a lot of scraped skin by diving on the floor chasing loose basketballs.

Khamenia’s 19-footer – his sixth field goal without a miss – on the ensuing possession put the Wolverines (31-3) back up before Walker’s layup put the Mustangs ahead to stay.

Saturday night’s matchup meant that the high school career of one of the two of the four or five best players to come out of California this decade – Khamenia and Burries – was going to end at the final buzzer.

And that proved to be Khamenia, who helped the Wolverines to a CIF SS Open crown and two State Open championship – and composite 122-12 record – over his marvelous four seasons.

Khamenia (who will join Burries, Yessoufou and Alijah Arenas of Chatsworth on the West team in the April 1 McD’s AA game in Brooklyn) missed his final eight field-goal attempts – including a 21-footer against a hard closeout by Burries that would have gotten his team to within four points with 1:25 to go.

Williamson (who picked up his fourth foul with 2:30 to go in the third quarter but returned to the floor with about six minutes to go in the fourth) was the primary defender on Khamenia in that stretch.

But Copenhagen, freshman Cameron Anderson and Burries all got their pops at him, too, with some double-teams thrown in the mix, as well.

“Issac loves that kind of challenge,” Singleton said.

“But it was kind of a ‘by committee’ effort. You can’t expect to slow down a McDonald’s All-American who is good as he (Khamenia) is with just one defender on him the entire game.”

And that was the approach of Coach David Rebibo’s Wolverines, too, against Burries via the efforts of Khamenia, Carroll and Jones.

Burries’ initial bucket came by way of that that first-quarter, buzzer-beating layup.

He closed the game by hitting nine of his final 15 field-goal attempts, with 19 of his points coming after intermission.

“We had extra motivation (after Harvard-Westlake beat St. John Bosco Wednesday night to move to the semifinal while Roosevelt had a bye), because they beat us twice last year,” Burries said.

“But now we must get ready for Tuesday night (and the second game with Notre Dame in 10 nights). Our last goal is winning the state title. And I feel pretty good about our chances.”

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