Sharpe's shot wins CIF 2AA title for Rialto girls

Rialto point guard Summer Webb, who finished with 18 points, caught fire in the fourth quarter, hitting three of her four 3-pointers and scoring. With so much attention paid to Sharpe, who had six rebounds, five assists and four steals, Webb took advantage with seven of her team's last 13 points.

Sharpe picked a prime time for one of her four steals, pilfering the ball under the basket and scooping in a lay-up with 30 seconds to play to give Rialto a 53-51 lead. As it had all night, second-seeded Buena answered when Taylor McGuire skirted the defense on the baseline for the game-tying lay-up with 17 seconds to play.

Sharpe was the only player to touch the ball from that point on.

"I told her I'm going to call this play for you, call your number," Rialto coach Michael Anderson said. "She's so unselfish so I said 'You can not pass this ball.' It didn't look like she would get that good of a look at first but she got it to go in."

McGuire led Buena with 21 points, 12 of which she scored in the fourth quarter. Keani Albanez carried the team for most of the game scoring 17 of her 19 in the first three quarters.

Rialto took a 46-43 lead when Summer Ramsey converted one of Rialto's 10 team steals into a lay-up with 2:47 remaining in the game but McGuire answered with consecutive 3-pointers to hush the rowdy Rialto crowd and give Buena a three-point lead with 2:05 to play.

Webb's third 3-pointer of the fourth quarter followed 40 seconds later to tie the game and set the stage for a furious final minute capped by Sharpe's buzzer beater.

"We didn't want to sit back in a zone and let her shoot it," Buena coach David Guenther said. "I thought the length of Taylor (McGuire) helping over the top would do it but it didn't. It would be one thing if somebody who hadn't done anything all game had hit the shot but if they were going to beat you, you knew it would be her to do it."

After a sluggish start for both teams that included 11 combined turnovers in the first quarter, Rialto ended the period with an 8-1 run to take a 14-8 lead but Buena countered with an 8-0 run early in the second quarter to surge ahead by two.

After Rialto went scoreless for a five-minute, 28-second stretch of the second quarter, Denae Williams, who had 6 points and 16 rebounds, used one of her eight offensive boards to tie the game at 18. But Buena's Albanez, who scored 11 first-half points, dropped a nifty pass to McGuire that netted Buena a two-point lead at the half. Rialto shot just 21 percent in the first half, but held Buena to 31 percent from the floor, including 1 of 8 3-pointers.

Rialto came out aggressive in the third quarter, its full-court pressure causing a steal and ensuing lay-up by Sharpe to give Rialto a two-point lead. The senior added a pair of free throws to her own personal 6-0 run that made the score 28-24 in favor or Rialto three minutes into the second half.

Much like the first half, Buena answered. The Bulldogs reeled off a 11-0 run to continue the see-saw nature of the game, taking a 35-28 lead, their largest of the game, when Joi Moten's jumper found its way in after taking the scenic route around the rim. When it was looking the bleakest for Rialto, Sharpe halted the momentum with a three-point play with six seconds remaining in the third quarter.

When Webb drained a 3-pointer to begin the fourth quarter, the Rialto crowd came alive as the Knights pulled within one point. From that point on, the teams were never separated by more than three points.