The Cambridge boys junior varsity basketball team won the SCISL League JV Championship and completed its second consecutive undefeated season with a 32-26 victory over a Christian Learning team that never gave up.
The championship game played before a large crowd in the Christian Learning gym Thursday evening was fast-paced, well played, and extremely competitive. The game ended with Eagle Richard Enns stealing the ball from Cambridge star Jose Luis Rivero, and scampering down court to almost score as the buzzer sounded.
In a way that play was a metaphor for the entire game for the Eagles -- close, but no cigar.
The Little Eagles were clearly thinking upset as they jumped out to a 3-0 lead at the start of the game, and were leading 7-6 at the end of the first quarter.
The Eagles could have been further ahead because Cambridge was in foul trouble early, and by the halfway point every Cambridge foul became a shooting opportunity for the Eagles, who made three of their eight opportunities from the freethrow line.
Cambridge, which had won the two previous meetings between the two teams this year handily, seemed to recover its equilibrium in the second quarter, and fashioned the seven-point lead that it would basically hold for the rest of the game.
Gabriel Alonso sparked the Cambridge offensive with a three-pointer right after the quarter started, to which he added a two-pointer shortly thereafter. Rivero then converted a three-point play on which he scored on a lay-up, was fouled, and made the foul shot. This put the Knights on top 14-7.
But the Eagles urged, on by their large band of faithful fans whose battle cry was "Keep It Close," proceeded to do just that. The two teams traded baskets until the half, at which point Cambridge led 18-11.
The second half was more hammer and tongs warfare, but Cambridge kept its lead. The Knights were ahead 27-20 at the end of the third quarter.
The Eagles continued to suffer from their inability to take better advantage of their freethrow opportunities. In the third quarter they converted five of 15 freethrow opportunities. Cambridge made its lone opportunity.
Christian Learning also had the chance to take advantage of the fact that Rivero was a rare off-night shooting, and never did find the range from three-point land, missing all of his half dozen or so tries. However, he was able to drive to the basket successfully several times, picking up up a number of fouls in the process, and he dominated the rebounding in the game.
In the final stanza Cambridge basically maintained a six-or seven-point advantage until Eagle star Cesar Flores hit on a driving lay-up to cut the Cambridge advantage to five points at 30-25 with about three minutes remaining.
But that would prove to be the high-water mark for the Christian Learning effort as the two teams slugged it out in the final minutes, receiving a standing ovation at the end that seemed intended as a tribute to both the winners and losers in this hard-fought contest.
Scoring summary to come (probably Saturday).
Eagle Girls Edge Griffins on Late Basket
In one of the most intense games in recent memory, the Christian Learning girls junior varsity basketball team overcame an inspired effort by International to win the game 11-9 and take home the first-place medals and trophy in a game played at Christian Learning Thursday.
The game was knotted at 9-9 with two minutes to go, at which point Naomi Canaviri sank what proved to be the winning basket for the Eagles, though the Griffins got several opportunities to even the score in the remaining 120 seconds.
Undefeated Christian Learning had prevailed in the teams' two regular season meetings, though it had been severely tested by International in their first meeting, which ended as a 16-14 win for the Eagles. But both teams clearly came to this championship showdown loaded for bear.
Both had the full and enthusiastic complement of twelve players in uniform, and both had large contingents of parents and students in the stands. Indeed, in a rare occurrence the International adherents for a long while seemed able to outshout the Eagle adherents with their chant of "Let's go, Gree-feens."
The Cambridge Learning fans seemed slightly shocked when the first quarter gave a clear preview that this game was going to be a real dogfight. The Eagles, who had never scored less than 00 points in a game, found themselves at the end of that quarter locked in a a 2-2 tie.
While both teams were clearly suffering from "big game jitters," and were having trouble getting their offenses unpacked, it was also clear that both teams were going to be ferocious on defense. If many shots were missed, it was often because defenders forced the shoot before aiming.
The second quarter was hardly more productive than the first, and at halftime the Eagles owned a one-point lead, 4-3.
They kept that through the third quarter, at the end of which the score was 8-7 in favor of the Eagles.
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THE VICTORS --
Eagle girls with their trophy
Jonatan Muñoz, International
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In the fourth quarter Eagle Ester Chun made one of her two free throw opportunities to make the score 9-7 in favor of Christian Learning. But then Griffin standout Fabiana Zelada promptly tied it at 9-9 with a breakaway lay-up. And thus the stage was set for Canaviri's basket.
But before the buzzer sounded Zelada, Antonia Maggi, and Renata Maggi would all get loose for opportunities for International that looked like they were going to be sure-fire scores, but which missed the mark to the clearly expressed shock and disappointment of the International faithful. It seemed as if there were more clear shots in the final two minutes than there had been all game.
Scoring summary to come (probably Saturday).
