Sierra Canyon boys basketball tops JSerra in double OT, advances to regional finals
CHATSWORTH — Sierra Canyon’s Stephen Kankole hadn’t made a shot all game. But when pressure mounted in double overtime in Saturday’s game against JSerra, he released all of what was weighing on the Trailblazers.
His corner 3-pointer gave Sierra Canyon a seven-point lead with 2:11 left in double overtime and Bryce Cofield’s offensive efforts bolstered a 68-64 win over the Lions to secure a trip to the CIF State Regional Division I final.
“I’ve never been scared of the big moment,” Kankole said. “It was pretty cool, but we have two more games to win.”
The top-seeded Trailblazers (25-7) will have to get through third-seeded Redondo on Tuesday night in order to reach the CIF State championship game in Sacramento. Tuesday’s regional final will be played at Sierra Canyon.
Cofield made a layup roughly 30 seconds into double overtime and missed on his next attempt, but Maxi Adams was there for the put-back. Cofield ended the game with 29 points and nine rebounds.
“I feel like I led the team,” Cofield said. “Trusting my teammates, stuck to the game plan and it got us the win.”
Rebounding — especially on the defensive boards — kept Sierra Canyon in the game in critical moments. Defensive aggression against the height of JSerra (24-11) got the Trailblazers the momentum they needed in the waning minutes.
“It’s a huge emphasis. We do jumping jacks every day,” Cofield said. “Playing defense and rebounding is a huge key to us winning games.”
Sierra Canyon was losing battles in the post early against JSerra bigs BJ Davis-Ray, a 6-foot-6 SMU commit, and Brannon Martinsen, a 6-foot-7 four-star recruit.
Davis-Ray finished with 15 points and Martinsen contributed 14 points.
“They kept getting downhill,” Kankole said. “We dealt with foul trouble — Bryce (Cofield) fouled out, Gavin fouled out, Jaden fouled out, so Bryce James was big for us guarding (Davis-Ray) at the end and Chris Cain guarding (Martinsen). It was big for us.”
The Trailblazers tightened up defensively and pulled down valuable rebounds to get ahead, but it was a 3-pointer from Adams that gave Sierra Canyon its first significant advantage at 12-6 with 4:16 left in the first quarter.
Cofield scored 12 points in the first half and capped his team’s first-quarter scoring with a 3-pointer from the top of the key.
JSerra took a brief lead in the second quarter. Davis-Ray made a free throw and Dominic Bolton, who ended up with 14 points, hit a corner 3 to pull the Lions ahead 24-23.
“They didn’t want to lose, just how we don’t,” Cofield said. “They were hungry. It’s late in the season so everyone has that same kind of hunger on the line.”
The Trailblazers scored six of their 11 second-quarter points on free throws and Sierra Canyon struggled to keep a rhythm as they continued to be on the receiving end of fouls.
The Trailblazers got back into their defensive groove, however, to keep the ball in their hands and led 32-25 at halftime.
Sierra Canyon is one of two Mission League teams left in the CIF State Regional playoffs alongside Notre Dame, which beat St. Joseph 66-64 in the Open Division on Saturday night.
“We were disappointed we didn’t make Open Division,” Kankole said. “So we just want to show people why we’re in the wrong division. We made DI which is cool, but at the end of the day, we want to win.”