McDonald, Henderson lead Oak Park to win
OAK PARK » Trey McDonald remembered.
“Last year when I was at Providence, we played St. Francis in a scrimmage before the season and Jackson Mosley came at me with a lot of toughness and I wasn’t ready for it,” said McDonald, who is now a starting guard at Oak Park High.
McDonald was ready Wednesday night, leading a spirited defensive effort with backcourt mate Shay Henderson to lead Oak Park to a 53-41 win over St. Francis in the opening round of the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs.
Oak Park will travel tonight to take on top-seeded Etiwanda.
Henderson led the Eagles with 16 points, seven steals and six rebounds. McDonald added eight points and four assists, plus tenacious defense on Mosley, holding him to just three points.
“Shay and I, both guards, when we set the tone on defense, the whole team starts to pick it up,” McDonald said.
Oak Park led 27-20 at halftime, and then extended its lead in the third quarter, highlighted by a four-point play from Isaiah Sherrard, to take a 37-25 advantage.
Oak Park started the final quarter with a 6-0 run to open up a 4931 lead.
Mazi Mosley scored a team-high 13 points for St. Francis.
Coach Todd Wolfson subbed senior Jackson Mosley out of the game with 1:06 left to play so the traveling fans could give the fouryear varsity player a standing ovation.
“He’s the winningest player in St. Francis basketball history,” Wolfson said of Jackson Mosley. “He had a rough one tonight, but that’s not what we’ll remember him for. He’s won more games than anyone that’s worn a St. Francis uniform.”
The Golden Knights finished the season 20-11.
HERITAGE CHRISTIAN 59, FOOTHILL 51 » Tae Simmons led the Warriors with 21 points and 18 rebounds. Heritage Christian will host Roosevelt tonight in the second round.
Division 2AA
CHAMINADE 85, KNIGHT 71 » Ethan Johnson led the Eagles with 27 points and Coltrane Marchand added 25. Chaminade will play Windward at home today. CRESCENTA VALLEY 72, LAKEWOOD 54 » Armen Yetenekian had 26 points and Sebastian Tahmasian had 23 points, including six 3-pointers, for the Falcons, who will take on Tesoro in the second round. SIMI VALLEY 65, FOUNTAIN VALLEY 59 » Justin Rener led the Pioneers with 20 points, Caleb Peters added 18 and Ryder Mjoen had 14. Simi Valley will travel to Culver City in the second round.
VISTA MURRIETA 55, CRESPI 44 » Joe Sterling led the Celts with 18 points and Peyton White had 17.
OXNARD 71, WESTLAKE 58 » Austin Maziasz finished a breakout season with 21 points and six rebounds for Westlake.
CULVER CITY 92, THOUSAND OAKS 80 » Jacob Kjarval led the Lancers with 26 points in the loss. RANCHO CUCAMONGA 72, SAUGUS 56 » Max Tengen led Saugus with 19 points.
Division 2A
AGBU 55, PASADENA 54 » Michael Martirossian hit the winning 3-pointer with just seconds left. Senior Avand Dorian led AGBU with 16 points. AGBU will host Diamond Bar tonight.
AGOURA 88, SAN MARCOS 51 » Zane Miller exploded for 50 points in the Chargers’ win. Nasir Meyer added 21. Agoura will play at Sonora in the next round.
Division 3AA
CANYON 66, PRICE 46 » Tyler Miller led the Cowboys with 22 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.
Oak Park’s Trey McDonald provided a stellar defensive effort in the Eagles’ CIF-SS Division 1 playoff win over St. Francis on Wednesday.
Lincoln Phillips added 17 points and seven assists. Canyon will take on St. Pius X-St. Matthias at home today.
ST. PIUS 90, ALEMANY 57 » Mike Lindsay led Alemany with 22 points.
ARTESIA 64, NEWBURY PARK 48 » Cooper Lucas scored 16 points for Newbury Park.
PARACLETE 89, LAWNDALE 82 » Paraclete will play at Bonita on Saturday at noon.
VALLEY TORAH 75, MURRIETA MESA 59 » Valley Torah will play at Chino tonight.
SCHURR 71, HART 63
NOTE » Oakwood, which received a first-round bye, will take on Valley View at home in the second round tonight.
Division 4AA
VALENCIA 81, DON LUGO 57 » Mikah Ballew led the Vikings with 24 points and seven rebounds. The Vikings will host Warren today.
Open Division
The Southern Section Open Division playoffs begin tonight. Four local teams will participate in the section’s highest division. The schedule: St. John Bosco at West Ranch; St. Bernard at Harvard-Westlake; Notre Dame at Bishop Montgomery; and Sierra Canyon at Corona Centennial.
City Section, Division I
GRANADA HILLS 67, ROOSEVELT 39 » Dylan Vo led the Highlanders with 17 points and Yash Maharaj added 12 in Granada Hills’ win. Granada Hills will play at Palisades tonight.
CHATSWORTH 76, SOUTH EAST 63 » Alijah Arenas had 34 points and 18 rebounds for Chatsworth..
EL CAMINO REAL 75, HAMILTON 52 » ECR will travel to No. 1 Venice in the quarterfinals.
Karlee White possesses every skill to be a great basketball player. It was all on display when the standout guard led Viewpoint to the CIF Southern Section Division 1 girls basketball championship last season as a junior.
The Harvard commit finished the season averaging 20.4 points, 11.9 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game en route to being named the Daily News Offensive Player of the Year and the CIF-SS Division 1 Player of the Year.
But everything changed when she transferred to Oak Park High.
The Southern Section deemed White ineligible for her senior season because of a rule regarding players who transfer to a school where a former coach has relocated. White enrolled at Oak Park after Will Burr, who had been the coach at Viewpoint, was hired to coach at Oak Park.
That ruling prompted White to add another element to her basketball skill set: coaching.
“I’m basically an assistant coach,” White said. “I’m also learning other things I think will help me when I get back on the floor. I’ve learned that communication is a huge piece of basketball. We need to communicate more.”
White had a procedure on her knee in November and she is also focusing now on her rehab. Instead of dwelling on what she can’t do, the smiley senior is focusing on what she can do.
“I was pretty sad,” White said of not being able to play. “I took it as a sign from God telling me I need to take care of my body and that I was doing too much. So the focus is to help the team
Oak Park girls basketball player Karlee White is helping the team off the court as it pursues a CIF championship.
in any way I can and get ready for college.”
Burr and White are also impacting the Oak Park program in winning ways. Oak Park was 1-20 last year. This season, the Eagles captured the program’s first league title since 2006, are 14-11 overall and won the Coastal Canyon League in undefeated fashion (8-0) thanks to the play of junior Lindsay Gould, sophomores Ella Broms and Ella Shmool, and White’s younger sister, Delaney, a standout freshman point guard.
“Her IQ has improved and playing the role of a true point guard,” Karlee said of Delaney. “Having the ball in your hands forces you to be thinking at all times. Seeing her improvement in that aspect in a short amount of time is incredible.”
Oak Park earned the No. 2 seed in the Division 5A playoffs and hosted Lutheran High of La Verne in the opening round Thursday night.
The Eagles are a serious contender to win a CIF title, which would give Karlee her second straight CIF ring and Delaney her first.
“Karlee’s perspective is very helpful to Delaney because she’s been there before,” Burr said. “She’s been incredible.”