In a see-saw game, Long Beach Poly opened up the fourth quarter with
a 6-0 run and held on to sneak past Etiwanda with a 60-53 win in the second 2011 CIF-SS Div
I-AA Boys Basketball semifinal game at the Anaheim Convention Center on Tuesday
night.
The Jackrabbits will face Corona Centennial which upset
Mater Dei - in the CIF SS championship game, a contest that will be streamed
live here on FOXSportsWest.com at 6 p.m. Saturday.
Etiwanda cut the deficit to two with just under two minutes
remaining on a free throw by senior Byron Wesley, but sophomore Roschon Prince scored on a put back and then had a steal and a
layup to restore the six-point lead with less than a minute remaining.
Etiwanda
senior Jordan Daniels again cut the deficit to four, then Poly senior Alexis Moore hit a
free throw and classmate Chris Camper hit a pair to account for
the scoring.
Prince finished with a
game-high 19 points and added 12 rebounds. Moore added 15 points and eight
rebounds for the 28-1 Long Beach Poly Jackrabbits.
"At Poly, whatever sport you play, you always have that
target," Moore told reporters after the game. "With the No. 1 seed,
we knew there was going to be a lot of expectations and a lot of pressure put
upon us. We just tried to tune that out and play our game."
Ryan Anderson added 11 points and Camper added 10 as four Jackrabbits
hit for double figures. The starting five combined for all 60 points while the
bench had just three players enter the game, combining for one shot on just
over 16 and a half minutes of PT.
Etiwanda, 28-3, held a four-point lead for much of the third
quarter and entered the final eight minutes tied at 43 but could not keep up
with the top-seeded Long Beach Poly. The game included 10 ties and four lead
changes.
Wesley led the Eagles with 18 points Jordan Daniels added 12
points in the loss.
Etiwanda shot just 39 percent from the floor while Long
Beach Poly sot 45 percent.
