Rosamond basketball teams both win HDL titles
EDWARDS AFB — The Rosamond girls basketball team finished the regular season with a 38-29 High Desert League victory at Desert High School on Thursday.
The Roadrunners (20-7, 11-1) had already wrapped up the league championship, but were able to avenge their lone loss in league play to the Scorpions (16-6, 8-4), who finished in a tie for third place. Desert beat Rosamond 50-40 on Jan. 16.
Rosamond senior Rihanna Williams led the Roadrunners with 12 points, sophomore Abigail Cardoza finished with 10 points and sophomore Nadiyah Baladez had seven points against her former team. Baladez attended Desert High last year.
“It was good to have Rihanna lead her team in scoring in the final league game of her career,” Rosamond coach Justin Armstrong said. “She hit three huge 3-pointers for us, which are extra important in a defensive affair such as this one.”
Armstrong said the Roadrunners out-rebounded the Scorpions 44-43, after getting out-rebounded 59-44 in the loss to Desert, including 30 offensive rebounds. Desert had 17 offensive rebounds on Thursday.
“We’ve been focusing more on mental toughness and rebounding ever since that loss and it’s helped this team become tougher mentally and physically,” Armstrong said. “In this game we won the rebounding war.
“Even though we wrapped up league on Tuesday, we really wanted to win this one because they beat us a few weeks ago and to keep this momentum going as we head into the playoffs next week,” Armstrong said. “We came in determined not to be outplayed again and I am proud that these girls never let up.”
The CIF-Central Section girls and boys basketball playoff brackets will be announced today.
Boys Basketball Rosamond 65, Desert 63
EDWARDS AFB — The Rosamond boys basketball team ended the regular season with a 65-63 High Desert League victory at Desert High.
Rosamond senior Andrew Arredondo hit the game winner for the Roadrunners (17-9, 11-1), who had already clinched the league championship. Arredondo had a missed 3-pointer fall straight in his hands and he had a putback before the buzzer to give the Roadrunners the victory.
Arredondo finished with 25 points, sophomore Fabian Robles had 21 points, freshman Matthew Pacheco added nine points and sophomore Cameron Gomez finished with eight points.
Westlake 82, Paraclete 60
The Paraclete boys basketball team’s season came to an end on Friday with an 82-60 loss to Westlake in the second round of the CIF-Southern Section Division 2A playoffs.
“The guys gave us tremendous effort,” Paraclete coach Newton Chelette said. “It’s just everybody on their team shot really well.”
Westlake had six different players make 3-pointers as they knocked down 16 for a 60% percentage from beyond the arc.
“We didn’t shoot the ball exceptionally well, but we played hard,” Chelette said.
Mister Burnside led the Spirits with 33 points in his final high school basketball game, while Devon Marshall added 13 points. Moses Wright scored five points and DJ Phillips, Keon Tretasco and Ryan Brown all added three points apiece.
“I feel sorry for the seniors that are not playing another game,” Chelette said. “But, like I told them, sometimes life throws you curves and you just have to deal with it.”
The Spirits had a solid season, sharing the league title for the first time since 201213 and finishing 23-7 overall.
“I’m proud of the year that our guys had,” Chelette said. “It’s a great group of guys and I’m going to miss them.”
Boys Basketball Score
CIF-Southern Section Division 2A Second Round Cypress 75, Knight 50
Boys Soccer Scores
CIF-Southern Section Division 2 Second Round
Palmdale 1, Moorpark 0 CIF-Southern Section Division 6 Second Round
Magnolia 5, Paraclete 1 CIF-Southern Section Division 7 First Round
Buckley 2, Vasquez 1