Ontario Christian girls basketball team takes down Etiwanda in CIF State Open Division regional semifinal

ONTARIO — The Ontario Christian girls basketball team got off to a good start in Saturday’s CIF State Open Division regional semifinal but faced a critical moment early in the second quarter.

The Knights led by four points, but star junior guard Kaleena Smith had scored just two. Her teammate, sophomore Tatianna Griffin, had 10 points in the first quarter but picked up her third foul with a little less than 7 minutes remaining before halftime.

Griffin left the game and it looked like it was Etiwanda’s chance to take over.

But instead, Ontario Christian extended its lead. Griffin returned in the second half and the second-seeded Knights downed No. 3 Etiwanda 80-66.

Ontario Christian (32-2), the CIF Southern Section Open Division runner-up, advances to Tuesday’s regional final, where the Knights will host No. 4 Sage Hill. Sage Hill upset CIF-SS champion Sierra Canyon 57-54.

Although Etiwanda (30-4) will play in a post-CIF tournament in New York in two weeks, Saturday’s loss ended the Eagles’ bid at a fourth straight Open Division state title.

Ontario Christian coach Aundre Cummings saw Saturday’s game, the Knights’ first of the state playoffs, as a big improvement over the CIF-SS championship game loss to Sierra Canyon.

‘I have to coach four quarters. I can’t coach 3 ½ quarters and think the game is won. Today, the energy (from the team) was reciprocated based on the energy I put in in the last quarter,” Cummings said. “I think they felt my energy. … I think this is the Ontario Christian way.”

Griffin was coming off a tough CIF-SS championship game when she scored only six points.

Saturday, she scored 10 of her 18 points in the first quarter, but picked up her third foul with 6:48 before halftime and immediately came out of the game with Ontario Christian leading 20-16.

But instead of Etiwanda making a run, the Knights extended the lead. Etiwanda never got closer than three points the rest of the half and the Knights extended the lead to 34-26 by halftime.

“I thought we had an opportunity to really pull away and be able to expand ourselves and put ourselves in a good place,” Etiwanda coach Stan Delus said. “But we ultimately could not find our rhythm offensively. … We just weren’t tough enough to be able to finish strong in that second quarter, and that ultimately hurt us in the next two quarters.”

“It ended up panning out the way I wanted it to,” Cummings said of the second quarter.

With Griffin back in the game to start the second half, the Knights used a 7-2 run early in the third quarter to open a 43-30 lead and the Eagles never got closer than 10 points thereafter. Ontario Christian led by as many as 22 points in the fourth quarter.

It was a balanced scoring attack for the Knights, with Smith scoring 23 points to lead the way. Griffin scored 18, Chloe Jenkins had 16 points and 10 rebounds and Dani Robinson scored 13.

Griffin discounted her personal success Saturday.

“I just wanted to win the game,” Griffin said. “I feel like the goal and objective right now is to survive and advance. It didn’t matter what I scored. I just wanted to play the best defense of my life, rebound the ball and make my teammates better and be a playmaker. Scoring right now doesn’t matter to me.”

Etiwanda, which last played Feb. 24 in a CIF-SS semifinal loss to Sierra Canyon, was led by senior Florida-bound guard Arynn Finley, who scored 30 points. Chasity Rice added 15 for the Eagles.

“I felt like I was expected to score the ball, because they kept giving it to me,” said Finley.

“I wish the ball could’ve moved a little bit more,” Delus said. “But I understand sometimes you just have to go out on your own shield.”

Ontario Christian now plays a Sage Hill team it defeated 86-54 in the CIF-SS semifinals Feb. 24.