Rapid Reaction: Santa Clarita Christian wins 2AA Title
AZUSA — Santa Clarita Christian won its second CIF Southern Section championship in the last three seasons after defeating St. Francis, 61-39, Saturday afternoon in the 2AA title game at Azusa Pacific University. The Cardinals put together an impressive 32-minute…
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Continue ReadingAZUSA — Santa Clarita Christian won its second CIF Southern Section championship in the last three seasons after defeating St. Francis, 61-39, Saturday afternoon in the 2AA title game at Azusa Pacific University.
The Cardinals put together an impressive 32-minute effort on both ends of the floor and stymied the Golden Knights’ offense, holding them to 26 percent from the field, including a staggering 1-for-19 from 3-point range.
“We have a lot of long, athletic defenders and knew they were a great shooting team,” Santa Clarita Christian coach James Mosely said. “We focused on making the windows for those shooters not nearly as clean. We wanted them to finish over our size in the paint.”
The Cardinals did a nice job of using their length to close out on the St. Francis shooters, forcing them to put it on the deck and create off the bounce where senior forward Kaleb Lowery was waiting to alter shots in the paint.
St. Francis finished the day 12-for-46 from the field, and when you take away the contributions of Andre Henry and Jason Gallant, the team’s two stars, the rest of the Golden Knights’ roster was 2-for-15 shooting and scored just five points.
“It’s up there,” St. Francis coach Todd Wolfson said when asked whether it was the worst shooting performance of the year for his team.
You’re not going to win very many games when you make one three…for a team our size, if we can’t shoot the three, it’s hard to score.”
Junior wing Josh O’Garro paced Santa Clarita Christian with 17 points, knocking down two of his 3-point attempts, including one in the first half where the St. Francis defense gave him about six feet of space and dared him to shoot.
“I thought it was an insult,” O’Garro quipped.
The Cardinals shot at a 47.7 percent clip overall and connected on six of their 13 attempts from behind-the-arc.
Best Overall Effort: Kaleb Lowery, Santa Clarita Christian
The 6-foot-8 power forward used his size, physicality and motor to dominate on both ends of the floor. The senior finished with 13 points, 13 rebounds, three assists, and while he didn’t record a blocked shot on the stat sheet, his presence around the basket was all that was needed to alter or change shots in the paint. Lowery also did a nice job on the offensive glass, where five of his 13 boards led to second-chance opportunities.
Best Scoring Performance: Josh O’Garro, Santa Clarita Christian
As noted above, O’Garro noticed early that St. Francis was dropping off of him on the perimeter and helping heavily on his teammate, Ty Harper. While the Golden Knights did a nice job reigning Harper in, O’Garro made them pay for that defensive strategy, scoring 17 points on 6-for-11 from the field. The 6-foot-4 junior hit a couple of deep perimeter jumpers and showed his smooth mid-range game.
Most Controlled Performance: Caden Starr, Santa Clarita Christian
The 6-foot-6 point forward is one of the more unselfish players you’ll see. The senior finished with six points, four rebounds and three assists, but his impact goes well beyond the box score as a guy who is willing to hit the ball ahead in transition, make the extra pass, understands when to take transition opportunities as opposed to backing the ball out and running offense, and despite his lack of explosive speed, he uses shot fakes and his length to get into the teeth of the defense and create for others.
Valiant in defeat: Andre Henry, St. Francis
SCCS coach James Mosely said post-game that the Cardinals’ defensive game-plan was to make Henry work for all the buckets he got and they did just that. The UC Irvine-bound guard finished with 21 points, but needed 20 shots to get there. The 6-foot-3 didn’t get a whole lot of help, but he continued to make the high IQ basketball play and feed his teammates on drive-and-kick opportunities. Henry added seven rebounds and three steals to his overall stat totals.