Eagle girls down Cambridge, 20-9
The Christian Learning girls junior varsity basketball team jumped off to an 8-0 lead in the first half, and was able to coast from there to a 20-9 victory in a game played at the Knights' gym Tuesday.
Cambridge rallied in the second half, and actually outscored the little Eagles in the third quarter, but never seriously threatened. Three of its points came on a three-pointer by Lisa Delboy near the end of the game.
The Eagle team was already guaranteed a place in the JV championship game against Cooperative next Tuesday, but the win enables them to go into the game with the same 5-1 won-lost record as the Jaguars, making it just that much harder to figure out where the game will be played. When the decision is made it will be posted on this website.
The Lady Eagles got baskets from seven different players. Talley Friesen led the attack with six points, Rachel Moss had four, and Jessi Kennedy, Jessica Smith, Mariela Salinas, Charise Friesen all had two points.
For the Lady Knights, Lucia Candia had six points, and Lisa Delboy three.
Eagle boys defeat Knights, 40-30
The Christian Learningboys junior varsity boys basketball team had to fight hard to get the lead, then got way out in front and withstood a last minutes Cambridge resurgence to win 40-30 in the Knights gym Tuesday.
The Eagles victory gives them a 5-1 record, the same as Cooperative, and means that the Eagles and Jaguars will meet in the JV Championship game next Tuesday. It is not yet certain which school will host the game. As soon as that decision is made this story will be updated to include that information, which will also be put in the schedule in the right-hand column of the website.
The two teams battled to a 12-12 draw in the first half, and well into the third period the score was knotted 17-17.
But then the Eagle boys seemed to find the range, and shots that had often been kicking off the rim started dropping. Christian Learning's big man, Andre Larsen, who had made only four points in the first half, scored nine in just the third quarter, at the end of which the Eagles led 23-18.
They widened the margin at the start of the fourth quarter, with Pablo Oh taking over as the main scorer, though with help from Nicolas Smith and Kenny Krestan, the diminutive sixth grader who looks like his nickname could be "The Pocket Rocket."
Eventually the Eagle lead grew to 19 points at 39-20.
But then a remarkable thing happened. The Cambridge team launched a high-speed diversified offense such as it hasn't put on display all year. The Knights normal mode of operation had been to give the ball to seventh grade phenom Jorge Rivera and let him see what he could do with it.
Ribera continued to be the main man, but in the closing minutes of the game he got more help from his teammates than he has all season. Gustavo Denis made a couple of buckets, and Nicolas Dagnoni added a field goal. When the smoke cleared Cambridge had cut the Christian lead to ten points, 40-30.
It caused one to reflect on whether this last quarter of the last game of the season might someday be remembered by the players involved, who presumably will be battling one another for the next half decade or so, as the point at which each team found itself.
For Christian Learning, Pablo Oh posted a total of 15 points, including a three-pointer, and Larsen was right behind him with 13. Haziel Martinez, Kenny Krestan and Nicolas Smith had four points each.
For Cambridge, Ribera finished with 15. Andres Hurtado had six points on two three-pointers in the first half. Nicolas Dagnoni had five points, including a three-pointer, and Gustavo Denis four. (There was some confusion regarding uniform numbers on the scoresheet and these totals may be slightly revised.)
