A loaded class of transfers had the Santa Clarita Christian School as favorites to take home the CIF-Southern Section Division 5AAA title. The team will get a chance to make good on those predictions.
SCCS went on the road to beat Bloomington 79-54 on Friday night, advancing to the second CIF-SS final in school history.
The Cardinals lost to Renaissance Academy in the 2013 5AAA final, though, giving the team a shot at the school’s first-ever CIF title.
“We had a little bit of adversity, with a lot of fouls called on us early, and we haven’t had to deal with that too much this year,” said SCCS coach James Mosley over the phone of the Bloomington game. “I was really proud of how they responded to that and didn’t let it take them out of their game.”
And that’s the game! @CIFSS FINALS HERE WE COME!!!
SCCS 79
BHS 54@SignalSports @KHTSSports @pollonpreps @Tarek_Fattal @DNPrepSports pic.twitter.com/Qj5LRI3WNr— SCCS Athletics (@SCCS_Athletics) February 24, 2018
SCCS (20-9) will take on La Puente in the Division 5AAA final, with the time and location of the game still to be determined. The Cardinals will be playing in the final on either March 2 or 3, though.
Justin Collins led SCCS with 22 points and Jordan Starr added 20 points, six assists and seven rebounds. Bloomington trailed by eight after the first quarter but SCCS began to pull away in the second and entered halftime with a 40-25 lead.
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“Jordan did a great job of getting us going and he’s been doing that all year,” Mosley said. “He was able to score for us in a bunch of different ways and gets his teammates involved well.”
Bloomington (20-13) cut the Cardinals’ lead to 58-50 with 5:43 to play in the fourth quarter before they pulled away for the lopsided win.
Kaleb Lowery grabbed a team-high eight rebounds to go with 12 points and Noah Veluzat was the final Cardinal to score in double digits, logging 10 points.