The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Etiwanda ready for another showdown with Sierra Canyon
It has become the girls basketball version of Mater Dei and St. John Bosco football.
Like Mater Dei and St. John Bosco facing each other twice nearly every season with a football championship on the line each time, so too do Etiwanda and Sierra Canyon in girls basketball.
For the third straight season, Etiwanda and Sierra Canyon will face each other for the second time in the playoffs as topseeded Etiwanda (30-3) hosts Sierra Canyon (31-2) for the CIF State Open Division regional championship tonight at 7.
As has been the case the previous two seasons, it is a rematch of the CIF Southern Section Open Division championship game. Etiwanda won that first matchup between the teams 65-44 on Feb. 23 at California Baptist University.
Etiwanda is trying to avoid what has happened each of the past two years, when the teams split the two matchups.
Two years ago, Etiwanda won the CIF-SS championship game 69-57, but Sierra Canyon won the rematch 60-51 and went on to win the state title.
Last year, Sierra Canyon won the CIF-SS championship game 70-57, but Etiwanda rebounded in state to win 55-54 en route to the program’s first CIF State championship.
“That (splitting games against Sierra Canyon) has been why we’ve been trying to be as locked in and focused as possible,” Etiwanda coach Stan Delus said after Saturday’s win against Mater Dei. “That’s the reason why we didn’t really cheer (on Feb. 23). Because there’s still other goals we want to achieve. Regardless of how the outcome of their (state) game went and how our game went, the matchup is here again.
“Honestly, it (the winner)
is going to be the team that doesn’t put too much pressure on themselves. The team that focuses and executes, The team that rebounds. And the team that makes the best and right plays at the right time. Which team can eliminate the mental mistakes and the physical mistakes. That’s the team that’s going to be victorious. It’s going to be a battle. Last game don’t mean nothing when it comes to this game.”
Both teams lost key seniors from last year: Etiwanda lost Majesty Cade, a 5-foot-10 guard/wing and Sa’lah Hemingway, a 6-1 guard/forward, among others. Sierra Canyon lost Juju Watkins, the 6-2 player who was the Gatorade National Player of the Year and is now starring at USC.
Both teams’ most impactful additions since last season are transfers from out of state, and both made significant contributions in the Feb. 23 matchup.
Etiwanda added 6-foot-3 junior forward Grace Knox from Nevada, who in her first matchup against Sierra Canyon 11 days ago led the Eagles not only with 19 points, but also with 12 rebounds and three steals.
Sierra Canyon got sophomore guard Jerzy Robinson from Arizona. In her first matchup against Etiwanda, Robinson had a team-high 17 points, 15 rebounds and two steals
It will also be the final high school game for one of two Mcdonald’s All-americans: Etiwanda’s 6-1 Uscbound forward Kennedy Smith and Sierra Canyon’s Mackenly Randolph, who is committed to Louisville.
Sierra Canyon coach Alicia Komaki called the Feb. 23 matchup the “worst basketball game of my Sierra Canyon career.” Many of the numbers in the game would support that including the Trailblazers missing all 14 of their 3-point attempts, shooting 25% from the field overall and turning the ball over 19 times, including 13 in the first half.
“We were ready for their press, but we had to figure it out,” Komaki said after the Feb. 23 game. “We hadn’t been pressed in a while. We can’t simulate all the things they do in practice.”
She said the fact that the teams had split each of the past two years was no consolation for a rematch.
“I think it’s like the game of craps. The odds are always the same,” she said. “It’s 50-50 whether we win or not.”
Delus said the game plan for Sierra Canyon in the rematch will not be identical to the first game.
“(We will) continue to do what we do,” Delus said. “But also have the necessary physical makeup of our team to be able to counter their adjustments.”