It was a racuous, hot and overflow crowd on Thursday night as Ontario Christian pulled out a 65-58 victory over host Aquinas to take home the Ambassador League boys basketball title.
Aquinas, which earlier endured a 6 minute,15 second scoreless stretch late in the 3rd and early in the fourth quarter, went cold again in overtime as the Falcons were held scoreless for the first 3:15 of overtime while Ontario Christian was scoring the first nine points.
Ontario Christian won despite a poor night from the foul line, as the Knights made just 19 of 32 free throws.
it wasn't quite as thrilling a finish as my other overtime game this week, when Cajon beat Arroyo Valley by 1 on a Michael Henley buzzer-beater in overtime. It could have been, as Ontario Christian's Kevin Ross missfired on a long attempt in the final seconds of regulation.
Demetrius Overstreet scored 20 points, Joseph Rushing had 15 and Carlos Padilla had 13 for Aquinas. Brandon Zuidema scored18 points, Cameron Levise scored 16 and Daylan Lawrence and Ross had 13 points apiece for the Knights.

That had to be the most tightly contested game I've seen all year on Tuesday night, when Cajon downed Arroyo Valley 62-61 in overtime, to clinch the San Andreas League boys basketball crown.
It probably wasn't the best-played game, but it was definitely the most fun to watch.
Great crowd at Arroyo Valley on senior night.
It was a tight game that featured 8 lead changes and 6 ties.
The last tie came after Arroyo Valey's Bobby Bonner sank a 3-pointer with 5.7 seconds left in regulation to tie the score 55-55.
Arroyo Valley scoring machine Stephen Marshall (no relation to me, as far as I know) made eight 3-pointers, including two in overtime and scored 31 points. His last 3-pointer with 1:52 to play in overtime gave Arroyo Valley at 61-59 lead.
Alonzo McCain missed a chance to tie the game when he made only one of two free throws with 1:05 to play in overtime. But Michael Henley made the off-balance jumper as time expired in overtime to lift the Cowboys to victory.

Carter won its first-ever San Andreas League wrestling title with a 45-24 victory over Cajon on Wednesday. It was not, however, Carter's first-ever league title in wrestling. The Lions won a league title for the 2007-08 season when they were in the Citrus Belt League.

Carlos Navarro (106), Casper Sherow (138), Clayton Atlas (152), Jesse Medina (170), Michael Martinez (220) and Kenneth Clark (285) recorded pins for Carter.

Cajon had won the last two league titles and 13 of the last 15 in the SAL. But now the Cowboys will be headed to the Citrus Belt League.

Although I wasn't able to get a lot into the print edition in Thursday's paper, I attended Summit's National Signing Day event for 3 football players, one girls basketball player and one girls soccer player on Wednesday.

It was standing room only in Room G101 at Summit when each of the athletes got to say something and pose for pictures wearing clothes from their college.

My colleague, Clay Fowler, wrote an interesting story about how some kids are left in the lurch when colleges make coaching changes and the new coaches don't honor the previous commitments. It also happens the other way, when students change their minds at the last minute for another offer.

That could've been the case for Summit's Donte Deayon and Jamaal Williams who had other schools interested in them even after they committed to Boise State and BYU, respectively. But both of them held strong to their commitments.

"UCLA and Oregon called," Deayon said. "But I ttold them I'm 100 percent committed to Boise State."

The Boise State orange seems to fit Deayon's outgoing personality. He wore a Denver Broncos hat (he's been a fan, he says) that has the old-school orange, mirroring that of the Boise State Broncos. He also had a blue and orange necklace with a Boise State medallion and had a bright orange Boise State t-shirt as an undershirt.

Williams' more subdued and introspective personality seems to fit the navy blue of BYU.
"I want the younger kids to know that if they work hard, they can get this too," Williams said.

Tight End Brandon Mosley signed with Division II Colorado State Pueblo and was excited about it.

"They're a lot like a D1 program," Mosley said. "They put a lot into it."

The other two players were soccer's Brittany Bravo, who signed with Division II Southwest Minnesota State.
"I kind of wanted to get out on my own. Part of it is the soccer, too," she said.
Right now, Bravo was expecting to miss Wednesday's game with an ankle injury, but hopes to be able to return for the playoffs.

Meanwhile, basketball player Jillian Alleyne had already signed with Oregon.
"I had signed (in the fall) and the whole basketball team was there," Alleyne said. "This was cool. There were a lot of people here."

There were balloons as well as cupcakes with colors to match the schools.

I was at the Southern California Shootout at Azusa Pacific, with some very intriguing games involving county boys basketball teams.

First, I arrived for the end of the Chino Hills-Upland game, which went into overtime tied 50-50. Myles Pearson went 6-for-6 from the line in the final minute of overtime, snapping a 53-53 tie en route to a 59-53 Upland win.

Next, it was Bloomington Christian and coach Danny Fuller facing his former JV high school coach Mike LeDuc of Glendora. Bloomington Christian, from 5AA, represented itself well, but ultimately came up short, losing 57-46 to the 2A Tartans.

Then it was a wild-and-woolly game between Colony and Santa Maria Righetti. Colony's offense was way off in the first half and the Titans trailed 33-22 at halftime. They picked it up in the second half, and got to within 69-66 in the final minute before Righetti held on for a 77-71 victory. So there were 55 points scored combined in the first half and 93 combined in the second half.

Next was the marquee game of the event, Etiwanda and Damien. Two years ago the same teams played in the same event at APU, and Etiwanda won it on a shot at the buzzer.

This time, Damien led for most of the first half and was ahead 25-23 at halftime. Etiwanda's defense went from very good to stifling in the second half. Damien went more than six minutes from late in the second quarter to the third quarter without scoring a point and Etiwanda began the second half with a 14-0 run. The Eagles never really looked back (Damien never got closer than 9 points) and sophomore Jordan McLaughlin scored 15 of his 27 points in the second half of a 64-45 Etiwanda victory.