The Santa Clarita Christian School boys basketball team defeated La Habra, 74-53, in a CIF-Southern Section Division 2AA second-round match at La Habra High School on Friday.
Five different Cardinals players finished in double-digit scoring as Kaleb Lowery and Kyjuan Cannady both recorded double-doubles. Lowery finished with a team-high 20 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and three steals, while Cannady had 12 points, 10 assists, six rebounds and two steals in the win.
“We felt that Kaleb Lowery had a huge advantage,” said SCCS head coach James Mosley. “They played a lot of zone, so we tried to get him the ball in the high and low post to create some action. He was a monster and played an incredible game by setting the tone defensively. We felt that our athleticism wore them down a little bit, once we locked them down defensively.”
SCCS (21-5 overall) had a rough time getting going offensively, while trying to limit La Habra’s perimeter shots and held a slight 16-15 lead after one quarter.
“We knew they could shoot the ball well, so we knew we had to be disciplined defensively,” said SCCS head coach James Mosley. “They are one of the better 3-point shooting teams in our division and playing in their home gym.”
The Cardinals settled down in the second quarter, got the ball moving and went to work. Holding the Highlanders to just 11 points, SCCS got contributions from Lowery in the high and low post, while Josh O’Garro, Ty Harper, Caden Starr, Tiago Soares and Cannady used their length to extend the lead to double-digits at the half, up 36-25.
Harper finished with 14 points, seven rebounds and three assists; O’Garro had 10 points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals. Starr had 10 points, seven rebounds, four assists, a steal and a block and Soares added eight points, three rebounds and one block.
“One thing that we have is that we are really gifted in terms of having a lot of long, athletic guys. I think just having that in situations really disrupts them, we have guys who can guard multiple positions and so we can switch and so some different things defensively that really took away their actions.”
La Habra (20-10) had no answer for the Cardinals scoring prowess after the first quarter and simply couldn’t close the gap or take the lead in the second half and fell.
The Cardinal advance to their fifth-straight quarterfinals and will play the winner of Fairmont Prep/Capistrano Valley CIF-SS Division 2AA quarterfinals on Tuesday.
Trinity Classical Academy 83, Lake Arrowhead Christian 44
The Knights (186 overall) were led in scoring by John Cervantes-King with 33 points (eight threes) in the double-digit win over the Eagles (11-12).
Peyton Frazier added 15 points, Kyle Fields finished with 12 and Will Yumbar 10.
Trinity advances to the CIF-SS Division 5A quarterfinals where they will play the winner of Nordhoff/Rancho Alamitos on Tuesday.
