Temecula Valley outpaces Estancia to reach 4A final
Hodgkinson and Ruiz combine for 52 points for Golden Bears in victory
The Estancia boys basketball team, at times Friday night, was able to take away the Temecula Valley player with the hottest hand.
But as soon as that happened, a new player stepped up and started knocking down shots for the Golden Bears.
Liam Hodgkinson, Fabian Ruiz, Jeremiah Profit and Taj Jackson shined at different moments and spearheaded another offensive outburst. The Golden Bears made 16 shots from behind the arc en route to a 95-79 victory in a CIF Southern Section Division 4A semifinal game.
Temecula Valley (18-14) will square off against Northview (24-9) for the Division 4A championship Friday or Saturday at a site to be determined. The top-seeded Golden Bears are averaging 92.3 points per game in the postseason, including a 120-point effort in the opening round.
“We’ve really prided ourselves on our tempo and being able to run up and down the court without getting tired,” Temecula Valley coach James Profit said. “We worked hard on conditioning, starting all the way back in the fall, to make sure the legs would
TEMECULA >> be there at the end of games.”
Hodgkinson, a sophomore, finished with a game-high 27 points and drained five 3-pointers. Ruiz, a freshman, scored 25 points despite not playing the fourth quarter and sank seven 3-pointers. Jeremiah Profit, another freshman, stacked the stat sheets with 15 points, eight rebounds and a teamleading seven assists. Jackson, a junior co-captain, added 11 points and five assists for the Golden Bears.
“We have so many players who can step up and score, and we all trust one another,” Jeremiah Profit said. “It makes things pretty easy.”
It certainly looked that way in the opening quarter, as Temecula Valley made 14 of 22 shots from the field to grab a 33-21 advantage. Ruiz led the way for the Bears with 13 points in the first quarter, while Profit and Hodgkinson added nine and seven points, respectively.
“I think having that strong start was very important,” Ruiz said. “We got the energy going from the start and tried not to let up.”
Estancia (23-9) made 10 of 16 shots in that opening quarter, with senior point guard Jaedon Hose-shea leading the way with 11 points. The Eagles had early success when they switched into a zone defense in the second quarter and even cut the deficit to seven points.
Profit and Ruiz nailed 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions, helping the Golden Bears get the lead back up to 12 points at halftime.
Estancia made 30 of 52 shots (57.7%) in the game and was hitting at a 64.1% clip entering the final quarter. Despite those numbers, the closest the Warriors got in the second half was eight points at 64-56 when Hose-shea buried a 3-pointer to cap an 8-0 scoring run.
“We just couldn’t get many stops on defense,” Estancia coach Xavier Castellanos said. “We tried to find a weakness. There weren’t many.”
Hodgkinson scored 20 points in the second half, including a pair of 3-pointers at the end of the third quarter that pushed the lead to 73-60.
“Our coaches have confidence in us and encourage us to take those open shots,” said Hodgkinson, who also had eight rebounds Friday.
Castellanos said the defensive goal at the start was to contain Profit and Jackson, which the Warriors accomplished after the opening quarter.
“That might have been one of the best games we’ve played all year,” Castellanos said. “But they still were the better team tonight.
“No. 11 (Ruiz) and No. 13 (Hodgkinson) were unbelievable. I think those two were the biggest reasons Temecula Valley won tonight.”
Hose-shea led the way for Estancia with 24 points and six rebounds. Nik Paguirigan and Peter Sanchez each added 14 points for the Warriors, who will have a week off before their first game in the CIF State playoffs.