ONTARIO – The Sierra Canyon basketball program – make that, programs – turned in quite the collective four-plus hours Saturday night in the Toyota Arena.
First, the top-seeded boys’ Trailblazers squad used its multitude of skilled and bouncy players to hold off Mission League foe Harvard-Westlake, 59-53, to win its first CIF Southern Section Open Division championships in six years.
Then, the school’s girls pulled off a stunner in front of a largely partisan crowd of 5,123, knocking off Ontario Christian – ranked No. 2 nationally while taking a 31-1 record into the building – 69-62 by outscoring the Knights by 12 points in the fourth quarter.
It’s the first time a school has captured both Open Division crowns in the same season.
Andre Chevalier’s boys (27-1) and Alicia Komaki’s girls (30-2) will be the respective Open Division’s top seeds when the CIF State office releases the brackets for the boys’ and girls’ regional playoff brackets Sunday afternoon.
As anticipated, Chevalier’s boys got one of their toughest tests of the season from the Wolverines (26-6), who lost at Sierra Canyon (55-47) in a Mission game on Jan. 21.
An 11-0 run over the first and second quarters gave the Trailblazers a 13-point advantage but the Wolverines, despite missing six of eight shots and scoring just seven points in the second quarter, only trailed by 11 points at intermission.
Coach David Rebibo’s two best jump shooters, senior Joe Sterling (18) and junior Pierce Thompson (15) combined for 33 points but hit just 10 of 30 shots from the field, five of those behind the arc.
But the Wolverines were able to hang reasonably close throughout due to their changing defenses (their traditional man to man and a zone Rebibo may have polished for this occasion), which helped coax Sierra Canyon into 16 turnovers.
Their transition offense wasn’t nearly the factor it usually is Saturday night, but the Trailblazers got seven 3s out of five players, almost always at critical junctions when Harvard-Westlake was chipping at their lead.
Senior forward Brannen Martinsen (a transfer from JSerra) – one of the five Trailblazers who played elsewhere a year ago who combined for about 90 minutes of action Saturday night – hit all three of his attempts from behind the arc, the last of those padding his team’s advantage to 12 points with 5:15 remaining.
Chevalier has a couple of McDonald’s All-Americans in his lineup in Brandon McCoy Jr. and Maximo Adams, and they contributed a litany of often spectacular and critical plays at both ends of the floor.
But the left-handed Martinsen was the team’s most productive player with 18 points – 10 in the fourth quarter – and seven rebounds.
And one of those rebounds, on the offensive end following a missed free throw by sophomore J.T. Grier with his team leading by four points and 16.5 on the game clock, stomped Harvard-Westlake’s last-gasp rally.
Don’t be surprised if there is a third meeting between those teams in the Southern Regional Open final on March 10.
And, likewise, a second game between the Sierra Canyon and Ontario Christian girls could take place that same night in the Trailblazers’ gym.
Two of the best players in the country, Sierra Canyon senior Jerzy Robinson (who is committed to the University of South Carolina), and Ontario Christian’s dazzling junior point guard, Kaleena Smith, justified all the hyperbole
Robinson went for 32 points and 12 rebounds while never leaving the floor while Smith – likewise, never subbed out – scored 30 points with six rebounds and five assists.
But the Trailblazers’ execution – at both ends of the floor – was near-flawless in the fourth quarter.
And that’s why the Sierra Canyon boys and girls celebrated making history Saturday night.
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