ONTARIO — Consider it another test passed by the Ontario Christian girls basketball team.
The Knights, seeded No. 1 in the CIF Southern Section and ranked No. 1 in the country by MaxPreps, held off No. 4 Sierra Canyon 62-52 om Saturday night in the final Open Division pool-play game.
Ontario Christian (28-1), which has won 14 straight games, advances to play No. 2 Etiwanda for the Open Division championship game Feb. 28 or March 1 at a site and time to be determined.
It is Ontario Christian’s first trip to the finals since falling in the Division 2A final in 2022. Sierra Canyon’s season will continue in the state playoffs beginning March 5.
“Job not done,” said Knights coach Aundre Cummings when asked how it felt to be in the finals. ‘It doesn’t feel like anything. School has never been there (Open Division finals) before. The expectation is for us to win it.”
The Knights never trailed in the game but were never threatened by the Trailblazers (27-2), who were ranked No. 7 nationally by MaxPreps. Ontario Christian led by as many as 13 points in the game, and Sierra Canyon never got closer than nine points in the final 4 minutes.
“The zone (defense) gave us problems,” Sierra Canyon coach Alicia Komaki said. “I think we played really bad. My team knows that. We just got lit up for 30 minutes after the game about how bad we played. Credit to them, you have to come into these games and just win and they won.”
It was a tough game for star Sierra Canyon junior guard Jerzy Robinson.
Robinson scored a game-high 24 points and grabbed 15 rebounds, but was heavily reliant on making 15 of 16 free throws as she was just 4 of 23 shooting from the field.
“Initially we were going to go man-to-man (defense),” Cummings said. “Once we saw that 2-3 (zone defense) worked, we didn’t want to come out of it because it frustrated Jerzy a little bit. It had her take bad shots. She’s extremely hard to guard.”
“They’re definitely physical,” Robinson said. “They’re the No. 1 seed so they came out ready to play. We have to match that the next time we see them.”
Senior forward Leia Edwards added 12 points for Sierra Canyon, but fouled out in the game’s final minute.
Sophomore guard Kaleena Smith led Ontario Christian with 21 points and 10 assists, while freshman forward Tatiana Griffin had 19 points and eight rebounds. Senior forward Alanna Neale had 10 of her 12 points in the second half, while freshman Sydney Douglas scored only six points but grabbed 13 rebounds.
“It (the win) took a lot of hard work, sweat … We had a lot of bumpy roads but in the end I feel like we all came together,” Griffin said.
Ontario Christian led by as many as 13 points in the first half (31-18) but the Trailblazers closed the gap to four points early in the third quarter.