basketball title

SACRAMENTO — If anyone knows how to help shooters feel comfortable when things aren’t going well, it’s Damien coach Mike LeDuc, who produced two of the Southern Section’s best scorers in Tracy Murray and Casey Jacobsen during his Glendora days.

So when Zaire Rasshan was only two of nine from three-point range at halftime on Friday night in the state Division I championship game, the message and mentality was keep shooting.

“I told him to start making them,” LeDuc said.

“I knew they were going to fall,” Rasshan.

He made a three to start the third quarter, launching a 10-0 surge that Folsom never recovered from. Damien came away with a 58-55 victory at Golden 1 Center, becoming the fifth straight team from the Southern Section Open Division to drop down to Division I and come away as state champion.

Rasshan finished with 18 points, including five threes. His three with 1:05 left moved Damien to an eight-point lead. Elijah Smith had 18 points and four assists. Eli Garner scored 15 points and had 13 rebounds. The only other player to score for Damien was Cameron Murray with seven points. He’s the nephew of Tracy Murray.

Throughout the fourth quarter, the Spartans (32-7) kept finding open players with near-perfect execution on offense.

“Their level of execution was on another level from anyone we’ve played,” Folsom coach Mike Wall said.

Joven Dulay and Parks Weaver each scored 16 points for Folsom, which fell behind 57-47 with 39 seconds left after two Smith free throws. Damien outrebounded Folsom 32-21 and had an 11-2 edge in offensive rebounds and took 30 threes to Folsom’s 18.

LeDuc, who has been coaching since 1979-80, said of the Spartans, “I really do believe this team, more than any other team I’ve coached, has been overachieving.”

The Spartans lacked height this season but got all five players on the court to rebound as a group, helping overcome any disadvantages. And Smith, as the point guard, rose up in the postseason.

“This run we’ve had, this guy has been ridiculously incredible,” LeDuc said of Smith.

As for the execution in the fourth quarter, LeDuc said, “We run a lot of plays. Basketball is a real simple game. It’s a game of repetition and if you do it over and over, you expect it to be done perfectly.”

Not too many “experts” believed Sierra Canyon could win Saturday night’s Southern Section Open Division girls’ basketball final against defending champion and top-seeded Ontario Christian.

However, Jerzy Robinson and her teammates sure did. Led by their South Carolina-bound senior, the Trailblazers won the upper division title for the second time in four seasons with a gritty 69-62 victory at Toyota Arena in Ontario.

Robinson epitomized Sierra Canyon’s “refuse to lose” mindset. She played all 32 minutes, finishing with a game-high 32 points and 12 rebounds. Afterward, she stood on the team bench, waved her arms and shouted to the Trailblazer faithful they were “No. 1.”

And they are — for now. The teams could wind up facing each other again in the regional playoffs, but this night was Robinson’s to savor.

“This is for the championship and we wanted it more tonight,” said Robinson, who sealed the win on a layup off an inbounds play with less than 20 seconds left. “This is what we work so hard every day for.”

On the same court and exactly one year after claiming its first Southern Section Open Division crown, Ontario Christian found out just how hard it is to repeat. The Knights were outscored 18-6 in the fourth quarter.

Kaleena Smith, touted as one of the best juniors in the country, came into the contest averaging 32.5 points per game. She scored 30 in her head-to-head matchup with Robinson. Each had 17 points in the first half, Robinson banking in a three-pointer from half court at the buzzer to pull the Trailblazers to within six.

Sierra Canyon’s Jerzy Robinson drives against Ontario Christian’s Kaleena Smith in the first half of the Southern Section Open Division championship game.

(Steve Galluzzo / Steve Galluzzo)

Ontario Christian star Kaleena Smith floats down the lane as she attempts a layup against Sierra Canyon on Saturday night.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

UC Irvine commit Delaney White, a senior transfer from Oak Park, and senior center Emilia Krstevski each added 10 points for third-seeded Sierra Canyon (30-2), which last won the Open title in 2022-23 behind Gatorade National Player of the Year Juju Watkins, now at USC.

It was the second straight upset for the Trailblazers, who had stunned No. 2 Etiwanda on its home court four days earlier.

“When we were behind it just made us play harder.” added Robinson, who is the consensus No. 1 recruit in the 2026 class. “We were telling each other, ‘go out there and get it!’ We’ve been working on our ball screen defense all year and we relied on it tonight.”

Sierra Canyon’s Emilia Krstevski drives for a layup against Ontario Christian in the Open Division final.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Dani Robinson scored 16 points for the Knights (32-2), who were the No. 1-ranked team in California and No. 2 nationally, having lost only once by two points to Bishop McNamara of Forestville, Md.

Since Smith arrived on campus in 2023, Ontario Christian has won 89 of 98 games. Sierra Canyon, which was undefeated in Mission League play, has won 12 in a row since a 70-60 loss to Long Island (N.Y.) Lutheran.

“My composure comes from my teammates,” Robinson said. “I have so much faith in them.”

The win came two hours after the boys’ team beat Harvard-Westlake, giving the Chatsworth school a sweep of the Open Division titles. Many of the boys stayed to watch the girls’ triumph.

There’s a new team with plenty of quality young players to get excited about in high school basketball.

Bishop Amat (28-5), led by sophomore Aiden Shaw and freshman Omar Cox-Labomme, put together a near-perfect performance on Saturday at Toyota Arena in a 71-48 victory over Hesperia to win the Southern Section Division 2 championship for coach Brandon Ertle, the team’s first title since 2002.

Shaw made nine of 11 shots, had four assists, three blocks and five steals while finishing with 20 points. Cox-Labomme made three three-pointers and had 16 points. For players 16 and 15 years old, respectively, to deliver with poise and confidence on such a big stage speaks to a bright future.

“They didn’t seem like they are a freshman and sophomore since the first game of the season,” Ertle said. “Not nervous or afraid of the moment. I think these are pretty good players.”

The Lancers also did a good job containing Hesperia’s 6-foot-7 Nolan Newman-Gomez, who finished with 17 points.

Murrieta Mesa 65, Aliso Niguel 58: Jagger Saul scored 18 points to help Murrieta Mesa win the Southern Section Division 3 title. Jayden Mysin had 18 points for Aliso Niguel.

Verdugo Hills 62, RFK 40: The Dons won the City Section Division III championship. Alex Kasumyan scored 13 points and Jordan Vargas added 12 points.

Rialto 59, Salesian 31: Lionel Madrid scored 16 points and Wayne Johnson had 14 points for Rialto in the Division 7 final.

Colton 55, San Bernardino Pacific 42: Andres Elenes scored 23 points for Colton in the Division 9 final.

Girls’ basketball

Sierra Vista 52, Desert Hot Springs 42: Cailei Buna finished with 19 points, making nine of 10 free throws, in the Southern Section Division 9 final.

Bishop Diego 42, Burbank Burroughs 41: Eden Synne finished with 16 points for Bishop Diego in the Division 5 final. Burroughs had a chance to tie in the final second but a free throw was missed.

When the horn sounded to end Friday night’s City Section Open Division boys’ basketball final, the first person OJ and EJ Popoola wanted to hug was their father, Chris.

Thirty years ago, he transferred from Westchester to Palisades to help the Dolphins reach the 4A semifinals. In June, his twin sons transferred to his alma mater from a Detroit prep school with hopes of making their papa proud and lifting the town’s spirit.

Mission accomplished.

OJ scored 19 and EJ added 17 as the Dolphins used tenacious defense, a three-point barrage and a relentless transition attack to overwhelm Cleveland, 75-56, at L.A. Southwest College.

Jack Levey made five three-pointers, raising his season total to 108, and Phil Reed had 13 points.

“This means everything,” OJ Popoola said. “Since the first day we came here this is what we wanted to do, bring joy back to the community.”

“We’re coming back next year to defend the title,” EJ Popoola added. “My dad’s team came up short but we finished the job.”

Playing the final at a neutral site was nothing new for a squad that did not play in its own gym for 42 straight games — a span of 388 days — in the aftermath of the Palisades fire last year.

“We accomplished two goals, winning league and City,” second-year coach Jeff Bryant said. “Now state is the third goal.”

Palisades (20-11) was in command from the start. OJ Popoola swished a three-pointer from the corner, Reed got a steal and scored on a layup, and Levey passed to OJ Popoola for a dunk, making it 7-0 after only 55 seconds. The Dolphins stretched the lead to 25-8 by the end of the first quarter and the margin was 19 by halftime.

Both teams lost in the Open Division semifinals last winter and were the preseason favorites to play for the title. They were awarded the top seeds in the eight-team bracket after each finished first in its league.

The Dolphins staked their claim as the best team in the City for the first time since 1969, when Palisades routed Reseda 85-57 in the final at Pauley Pavilion under the program’s first coach, Jerry Marvin, to finish the season 21-1 when there was only one playoff division. Leading that team was forward Chris Marlowe, who was named MVP after netting 29 points in the title game. He went on to captain the U.S. Olympic volleyball team that won the gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics.

Since it opened in 1961, Palisades has been the crown jewel of the City Section, claiming more than 260 titles across all sports (more than twice as many as the next-closest school), but this is only the third in boys’ basketball.

Palisades captured the Division I crown six years ago under former coach Donzell Hayes, who was a teammate of Chris Popoola on the Dolphins’ 1995-96 team that fell in overtime to Crenshaw (coached by the legendary Willie West) in the 4A semifinals.

“My team was one game away but these kids completed the circle,” Chris Popoola said, then referenced a famous Dolphins alum. “I hope Steve Kerr was watching.”

Sophomore guard Charlie Adams, who scored 24 points in the Cavaliers’ 68-64 overtime win against Fairfax in the semifinals, was limited to 13 — part of Bryant’s pregame plan.

Sergine Deme scored 19 points and had five dunks, and TJ Wansa added 11 points for No. 2 Cleveland (20-10), which was seeking its first championship since back-to-back 3A titles under Greg Herrick in 1981 and 1982.

No City opponent came closer than 15 points against Palisades, which now waits to see what division it will play in for the state playoffs.

“We’re not done,” OJ Popoola said.

“We can compete with anyone,” EJ added.