CHINO HILLS – The JSerra basketball team stuck with Chino Hills early. But doing it for one quarter and doing if for a whole game are two different things.
Second-seeded Chino Hills went on a 21-0 run in the second quarter and then cruised to a 105-74 win in the CIF-Southern Section Open Division playoffs on Friday night at Chino Hills.
It marked the 16th time the Huskies scored 100 points. They did that a state-record tying 18 times last year.
Chino Hills coach Stephan Gilling wasn’t concerned that the game was close in the early going.
“They still have to keep up with us for four quarters,” he said. “Most teams can’t do that. We got the win and that’s what is important.”
JSerra (17-10) trailed 16-10 after the first period but came back to lead 19-18 on a dunk by Joel Mensah with 5:29 left in the half. At that point, the small but loud followers from JSerra chanted “Over-rated” at the host team.
Other opposing fan sections have done the same and it doesn’t usually end well for them. It didn’t this time either as Chino HIlls (28-1) scored the next 21 points and ended the half on a 27-4 run to take a 45-23 lead into the locker room.
LiAngelo Ball, in his first game back after sitting out two weeks with a sprained ankle, didn’t score in the first quarter but scored seven straight points which gave the Huskies a 28-19 lead. He ended up with a game-high 32.
Other highlights in that stretch included a dunk by Eli Scott that came off a behind-the-back pass from LaMelo Ball that gave the Huskies a 34-19 lead.
Onyeka Okongwu had a dunk that made it 36-19 and Scott had another that made it 39-19.
“We go on runs like that,” Scott said. “When we get rolling and have dunks like that it breaks their spirit. That’s what we try to do.”
JSerra never fully recovered.
The Lions had their moments. Mensah had his share of dunks, a monster one coming over Scott in the second half but it merely cut the deficit to 79-47.
The highlight reel plays kept coming. Perhaps the niftiest came late in the third quarter as LaMelo Ball drove the lane, then at the last second flipped the ball over his head with Scott coming up behind and slamming it home for a 68-40 advantage.
It was a balanced effort for Chino Hille with LiAngelo Ball followed by LaMelo with 25 points and eight assists and Scott tallying 21 points and 22 rebounds. Okgonwu managed 12 points, nine rebounds and nine blocked shots.
Sebastian Much led the Lions with 19 points and J.T. Robinson added 17. Mensah and Abdul-Malik McClain each had 12 with Mensah also grabbing 13 rebounds.
The win sends the Huskies into the quarterfinals against Long Beach Poly (22-6), a 66-48 winner over Alemany. The Huskies played Poly earlier this season and prevailed, 78-75, its narrowest winning margin of the season.
