Sierra Canyon turns the tables on Etiwanda to capture crown
As good as the Sierra Canyon girls basketball team has been the last two years, there was one thing the Trailblazers hadn't yet accomplished: win a CIF-SS title.
Top-seeded Sierra Canyon did that, holding off No. 2 Etiwanda, 70-57, at Honda Center to capture the CIF-SS Open Division title for the first time in school history.
It is the first CIF-SS title for the program since 2013.
“It's not so much the significance that it was Etiwanda. I don't have a rivalry with Etiwanda,” Sierra Canyon coach Alicia Komaki said. ““The significance for me personally is that I was 0-2 in this game. Win a CIF Open Division title was on my checklist of things to do. I was really hungry to get that done with this group.”
Etiwanda (29-3) defeated Sierra Canyon (30-0) in last year's CIF-SS championship game. Sierra Canyon went on to win the CIF State Open dIvision title and has won 34 straight games since.
Sierra Canyon entered the game ranked No. 1 in the country, while Etiwanda was ranked eighth by ESPN. The game snapped a streak of eight straight victories by at least 25 points for Sierra Canyon.
Sierra Canyon star and USCbound senior Juju Watkins led all scorers with 24 points, while tying for a team-high 11 rebounds. She made just four of 16 field goals, but went 16-for-18 from the line.
Sierra Canyon never trailed after the first quarter, opened up a 17-point lead in the third quarter, but didn't put away the Eagles until the final minute.
Etiwanda guard Aliyahna “Puff” Morris made a 3-pointer just before the third-quarter buzzer to cut Etiwanda's deficit to 55-46. The Eagles were within 64-57 on a basket by Kennedy Smith with 1:12 to play, but could not score again.
Smith limped off the court, reaggravating a right knee injury with 3:36 to play in the third quarter, and the Eagles trailing 46-32. She re-entered with Etiwanda down 5846 with 4:51 to play but still had a rough game. She finished with 12 points on 4-of-17 shooting, while Morris led the way for Etiwanda with 17 points, Majesty Cade had 13 points and Sa'lah Hemingway added nine points and 15 rebounds.
“I thought our girls played hard all the way through, all 32 minutes,” Etiwanda coach Stan Delus said. “We struggled a little bit on the defensive rebounding end. We let them get out in transition for too many possessions. But I thought we fought. We didn't capitalize on our layups. All in all their length bothered us. I think we'll do a better job of getting their shot blockers out of position a little bit more next game. I think we'll see them again.”
Sierra Canyon is expected to be seeded No. 1 and Etiwanda No. 3 (behind La Jolla Country Day) in the CIF State Open DIvision SoCal Regional.
Etiwanda struggled overall from the field, making just 17 of 67 field goals (25.4 percent) and had several players get into foul trouble, although neither Smith nor Watkins got into foul trouble like they did in the two matchups last year.