Final: Etiwanda 53, Glendora 48
Here's my story that will be in our Wednesday edition:
LA VERNE - Glendora High School had ridden its heart, guile and the shooting of senior Dominic Tiger-Cortes to advance to the CIF-Southern Section Division I-A basketball semifinals.
But Etiwanda possessed one trait the Tartans had little answer for - speed.
The Eagles, using quickness on defense and solid efforts from guards Rome Draper and Jordan Finn, jumped to a double-digit lead and held off another patented Glendora charge for a 53-48 victory Tuesday night in front of a standing-room only crowd at Damien.
The Eagles (29-1), who received 13 points from Draper and 10 from Finn, advanced to face Riverside King, a 62-57 winner over Chino Hills, in Saturday's championship game at Honda Center.
Glendora, which missed a chance to tie the score with 10 seconds left when Calvin Smith missed a 3-pointer, slipped to 21-11.
"Deep down, we're satisfied," said Tiger-Cortes, who had a game-high 35 points. "Of course, you want to make it to the finals, but coming this far is a great accomplishment."
But that dream for a championship began to fade when Etiwanda closed the first half with a 15-1 run to take a 29-20 lead. The Eagles then pushed the advantage to 44-34 with just over six minutes left in the game.
"We tried," Tiger-Cortes said. "We have confidence that we can come back. We feel we can play with anybody."
Glendora, fresh off a comeback win last week over El Toro, started to prove it late by rallying again for the second time in three games.
Kos Russell (six points) first cut the deficit to 47-41 on a 3-pointer with 2:46 to play, then got Glendora within two at 50-48 with just 28 seconds left after another 3-pointer.
The Tartans then got a break when Finn made just one of two free throws with 22 seconds to go.
Tiger-Cortes pushed the ball up the floor and passed to a wide-open Smith in the corner, but his 3-pointer with 10 seconds to play was long.
Draper grabbed the rebound, was fouled and made both free throws to seal it at 53-48 with 10 seconds left.
"I'm just real proud of these guys," Glendora coach Mike LeDuc said. "We had a shot to tie the (score) with 10 seconds left against a great team. They were quicker than us, stronger than us and we just hung in there."
My take: There's just no quit in these guys. I hope they some how get picked for the CIF State Tournament, because their season doesn't deserve to end. They showed it tonight, and like Gene Hackman said as coach Norman Dale in that "Hoosiers" clip Fred posted earlier, they walked off the court as winners.
I kept telling myself throughout the game, 'They're (Etiwanda) too quick." But Tartans - mainly Tiger-Cortes - just kept coming back and low an behold, the team that doesn't quick found a way to get its look at the game. But Smith's jumper had just one revolution too many.
I've covered a lot of prep basketball over the years, and never had more fun covering a team than this one. This may not have been the most-talented Glendora squad, but no team was more thrilling to watch.
- Steve Ramirez
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Miguel Melendez's prep blog
ESPN
OC Varsity
San Bernardino Sun Preps
LA times Varsity Blog
Daily Bulletin Preps
Whittier Daily News Preps
LA Daily News Preps
Long Beach Press Telegram Preps
Daily Breeze Preps
Dyestat Track and Cross Country
MaxPreps
Rivals.Com
College Level Athletes
SORRY SG I FOR GOT YOU GOING. DUMB A--. WHO IS #1FAN. TEACH YOUR KID HOW TO HIT FIRST THEN WE CAN TALK
At least Tartan Football kicked Etiwanda's A@@!
At least Tartan Football kicked Etiwanda's A@@!
At least Tartan Football kicked Etiwanda's A@@!
"Where are going to school at"? WTF kind of writing is this? CJ or is it #1 Fan. get your head out and deliver the mail if you could get the addresses right? your Walnut teams are out and your baseball team is about to get it's Tit's lit. Go back to school K.G. YOUR A DUMB A--. no one cares about how you pull for Walnut on one hand and bash it with the other. Your kid is a avg. player nothing great as you will see when he does not take the field as a starter on the walnut varsity baseball team. excuses will come ou I know.
I've spent most of the year leaving the SGV to watch some of the more "high" profile teams and players. I regret that now because last night was the first time I got to see Dominic Tiger-Cortes in person. Just an amazing effort from a helluva player, and probably the best shooting performance I've seen all year.
Tiger great season. Where are going to school at. This way we can see you on the TV
Steven and His dad. Go CJ Morris
Another Great 20 win season by the Tartans. You have to respect LeDuc, and you have to give Dom his Props. Koz is a great hustler, and Calvin has the potential to be good. But too many turnovers/offensive rebounds lost us the game. Glendora played their hearts out and when everything was said and done. Tartan Fans clapped for the Victorious Eagles.
They should have a great game with King, and i hope that 23 (Brewer, I think) goes somewhere because he can straight up, play defence.
No Just like Football Chant, just pure good hs basketball
its been a good year for the Tartans, football, basketball; Maybe baseball and softball will prove to be the talk of the valley too.
Way to Go Tartans
Be Proud
No hex, just a more talented team. Props to Etiwanda. At least we made 'em sweat, unlike their 3 other playoff wins. Now we're 2-1 in the new Spartan gym.
fitting they lost at damien. spartan hex on the tartans
Great game against a much more athletic Etiwanda team. The big difference was Glendora had to depend on Tiger Cortes 35 points for the bulk of the scoring while Etiwanda had evenly balanced scoring by all of their players. If a couple of in and out treys by Tiger go in Glendora would be on the way to the Honda Center. Great finish to the season Glendora. No one picked you to go this far. Another LeDuc masterpiece.
they chokeddddddddd. glendora suckssssssssss
I have been a fan since Casey Jacobsen was a freshmen.... This years team deserves a lot of credit. No one expected them to do as well as they did. Hold your head up high don't let anyone tell you anything different.
inspiring performance by tiger -cortes that was somethin special he has to be a lock for POY
glendora basketball is the biggest and best thing this valley has theyve done it as the favorite and this year as the underdog
great job tartans
wow great season had such a great time starting chants and pumping up the crowd! it feels just like it did when football ended man hate this feeling but the boys proved alot to everyone and them selves sure was alot of hype about this etw team and they got a mouth full tonight great season seniors and get em next year ill be in the stands retired from the dpound!
Great Season ...BE PROUD !
Fight On
TM
come on come on...they gotta do it
330: stw 45-38
6;45 - Etw 43-34
3rd: Etw 40, GHS 34
half: Etw 29, GHS 20....tiger-Cortes 16 pts... pts...Etw closes with 15-1 run to lead by 9
awesome...keep it up ghs..man it must be a great game to watch
1st: GHS 11, Etiwanda 10
hope you can make the updates...i cant make it to the game...
I will again attempt to post quarter updates, but again it will depend on the reception I get with my ATT smart phone.
54-52 tartans in a thriller