The Summit girls basketball team was as close as one point as late as the third quarter, but they eventually fell 69-59 at top-seeded Santa Ana Mater Dei in a CIF State Division I Southern California Regionals semifinal on Tuesday night.

Jillian Alleyne scored 18 points with 17 rebounds, Ajaee Foster scored 11 of her 14 points in the second half, Ashley Weissmann made 3-of-5 3-pointers and scored 12 points, while Brooklynn Jackson made two 3-pointers and scored eight points and Adrianna Brodie scored seven. All the Summit points were scored by the starters, who played almost the entire game.

Summit, the CIF-SS Division 1A champion, actually fell behind 60-46 in the fourth before battling back one final time to get within 64-59 when Weissmann made three free throws with 32.4 seconds left. But Mater Dei made 5-of-8 free throws from there on out to close out the game.

It’s the dreaded 4-5 matchup, the one that messes up many a NCAA men’s basketball pool and both Summit and Etiwanda hope to pull the minor upset on Saturday.
Both the Summit girls and Etiwanda boys are seeded fifth in the Division I South Regional, and are playing at the No. 4 seeded team in the second round on Saturday. Summit is at Corona Santiago, while Etiwanda is at Los Angeles Loyola.

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Here are my rankings for this week, as published on Thursday.
Boys Basketball
1. Etiwanda
2. Chino Hills
3. Eisenhower
4. Summit
5. Silverado
Girls Basketball
1. Etiwanda
2. Summit
3. Rialto
4. Cajon
5. Eisenhower
Boys Soccer
1. Fontana
2. Redlands East Valley
3. Oak Hills
4. Granite Hills
5. Cajon
Girls Soccer
1. Los Osos
2. Granite Hills
3. Serrano
4. Ayala
5. Ontario Christian
Girls Water Polo
1. Los Osos
2. Upland
3. Ayala
4. Redlands East Valley
5. Citrus Valley

The Rialto girls basketball team after its involvement in a fight in Tuesday’s game against Pacific, will have to forfeit its next game, on Thursday against Colton, coach Michael Anderson learned on Wednesday.

“The officials lost control of the game,” Anderson said. “I started talking to them about it 1:40 into the game.”

Rialto coach Michael Anderson revealed this on Wednesday. The fight in the second half of the win over Pacific resulted in the halting of the game and five Rialto players and some Pacific players ejected. That left 4 Rialto players and Anderson assumed he could use those 4 plus call up a couple players from the JV team to compete in Thursday’s game against last-place Colton.

However, he learned Wednesday that all 9 varsity players were suspended and the team will forfeit its game against Colton. That will drop Rialto to 15-2 overall, 7-1 in the San Andreas League.

After the offensive doldrums of the second quarter, both teams shot better in the third.
Buena went on an 11-4 run to take the lead for the first time since the first quarter.
Now, after three quarters, Buena leads Rialto 33-32.
Could we be in for another great finish?

Each team scored only four points in the second quarter, but Rialto leads Ventura Buena 18-15 at halftime of the Southern California Division III championship at the Galen Center.

Rialto led 14-11 after a quarter, then held Buena to a single free throw until a 3-pointer in the final minute cut the Knights’ lead to 18-15.

Here are some ugly second quarter numbers: Buena 1-10 from the field, 1-4 from the line. RIalto 2-17 from the field, 0-0 from the line.
Overall, Rialto is shooting 23 percent from the field at the half, while Buena is at 26.

But the bottom line is, Rialto is leading, 16 minutes away from a berth in its first state championship game.

Cajon girls basketball coach Mark Lehman and boys basketball coach Randy Murray are once again spearheading the annual Boys and Girls Senior All-Star Basketball Game between All-Star teams from San Bernardino and Riverside counties. The 31st Annual edition of these games will be played April 22 at 6 p.m. (girls) and 8 p.m. (boys) at Cajon High School and both coaches are looking for nominations for the game, which will feature a 3-point shooting contest at halftime of the girls game and a slam-dunk contest at halftime of the boys game.

Nominating coaches and athletic directors should send Lehman (girls) and Murray (boys) the following information in their nominaton — player’s name, jersey number, high school, position, email address, cell and/or home phone number, height, statistics and why they should be representing their county. This information should be e-mailed to Lehman for the girls at mark.lehman@sbcusd.com or Murray for the boys at randy.murray@sbcusd.com.

After having the appeal of the CIF-Southern Section’s ruling which made Miller senior girls basketball players Chloe Wells and Cassandra Mitchell ineligible denied last Thursday, the parents of Chloe Wells is trying to get the ACLU involved as part of a possible lawsuit.

The ruling on Wells – who starred for Miller’s CIF championship teams as a freshman and sophomore before moving out to North Carolina for her junior season – and Mitchell was handed down by the CIF-SS offices in November, as they denied the hardship waiver for Wells and Mitchell, who moved with Chloe to Southern California over the summer. After taking it to the CIF-State appeals court, Chloe’s mother Nyla is trying the ACLU route.

“It’s just a shame what they are doing,” Nyla Wells said. “It’s not right and we are going to fight it. Cassandra left a bad home situation to come out here and get to play and hopefully, get a scholarship. How they can say she’s not a hardship is beyond me.”

The Wells have just started the process of getting the ACLU involved, as they have presented their case to the organization’s lawyers. From there, the ACLU will decide whether they want to take on the case, a process that takes roughly a week according to Nyla Wells.

“We feel its gotten to the point where the civil rights of Chloe and Cassandra have been violated,” Wells said. “Hopefully they’ll take on the case and we can proceed with our next move.”

The 2009-2010 boys and girls playoff divisions were released Tuesday with a few notable changes. One of the most notable dealt with Hesperia, which dropped from Division I-AA to Division II-A in both genders. Redlands East Valley also dropped in both genders, moving down from I-AA to I-A.

Another notable team that moved up was the Colony girls basketball team. After winning the D3-A CIF title two years ago and the D1-A title last year, the Titans will have a chance to win a third title in a third different division, as they’ve moved up to D1-AA. Summit also made a leap up, moving from D2-A to D1-A.

Other notable girls teams to move up include Fontana (D1-A to D1-AA), Colton and Ontario (D2-AA to D1-A) and Alta Loma (D2-A to D2-AA). Boys teams to move up include Los Osos (D1-A to D1-AA), Colton and Ontario (D2-AA to D1-A), Yucaipa (D2-A to D1-A) and Summit (D2-A to D2-AA).

Of the new schools, Oak Hills was placed in D4-AA in both genders while Citrus Valley was put in D4-A.
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Also discussed at the Tuesday school board meeting was air conditioning for the Cajon High School gymnasium. A measure for renovations of the high school included air conditioning for the gym, but unforeseen money spent on asbestos removal now leaves the gym, without AC.

“They did a lot of renovations first that weren’t really necessary, like new doors to classrooms,” said Cajon girls basketball coach Mark Lehman, who spoke in front of the school board Tuesday. “But the asbestos discovery sidetracked the project, and by the time they got to the gym, apparently there was no more money.”

That leaves the gym a sweatbox, according to Lehman, as vents were sealed up as part of the yet-to-be-completed insertion of air conditioning, allowing even less air in and out of the facility. He appealed for a rearranging of funds to complete the project, something the school board said it would look into, according to Lehman.