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PATRIOTS’ ZONE STUNS TOP-SEED HILLCREST

Christian High's JACKSON LARSEN (10) and JAVIER JIMENEZ defend on Tuesday night. / John Valenzuela-Press Enterprise

2018 EAST COUNTY PREP BOYS BASKETBALL

CIF STATE REGIONAL SEMIFINALS

 

By Dave Dickens

EastCountySports.com

 

RIVERSIDE (3-13- 2018) – Can the Patriots of Christian High be stopped?

That was the big test set forth as the visiting Patriots set foot on the court of the 32-4 Southern California Division IV No. 1-seed Hillcrest Trojans

“The Trojans crowd was crazy loud, just insanely loud as was ours,” said Christian High head coach DAVION FAMBER.

The Christian Patriots came in off of one of their best performances of the year, almost flawless, against a Grossmont Conference foe who had defeated them earlier in the regular season, Mount Miguel, and shocked the Matadors at the Matadome.

Christian during a time out on Tuesday night.

It is possible that the rest of this conquest for the Christian High Patriots be called the “SHOCK AND AWE QUEST FOR THE TITLE?”

Christian came into battle with a 23-9 record, along with a 5-1 record in the postseason.

On the other hand, the Trojans had taken care of Carlsbad in the first round and more recently coming off a win over Francis Parker which was the only the only blemish in the Patriots loss column in the postseason.

Hillcrest opened up the first quarter of play already up 14-7, however, that would be the biggest lead they would have for the entire contest.

Christian started to figure out very quickly that the key figure in this bout was to stop “the big guy”, 6-foot-7 senior VICTOR OHIA OBIOHA.

“Obioha was their key, feed him the ball, he receives all the attention, thus he kicks out the ball to everyone else,” said Famber.

“We just stuck one of our guys on him, CHRISTIAN WEST, and held him to 8 points the whole game, and limited Obioha to 7 rebounds,” stated a proud Famber.

At the end of the first quarter, the Trojans were up 14-10, with a roasting Trojan crowd, as if it were USC.

“It appeared that they had never seen a press, especially the big boy, as every time we did, we would cause him to travel,” Famber said. “We also were as big as he was and were able to defend the mere thought of a dunk from Obioha.”

Player of the year JACKSON LARSEN had 9 of the Patriot 18 points in the first half.

Christian senior NASHOM CARTER’s strategy was continuous penetration dribble from the top of the lane.

Hillcrest led 26-20 early in the third when JORDAN GAINES hit from three. Carter also had a key floater in the lane with 2:45 left that narrowed the Hillcrest lead to 39-38.

The key play of the night was with 2 minutes left was ISAIAH ROBINSON’s three from, “downtown Sacramento,” said Famber.

The game was tied at 41-41 with under 2 minutes left.

With 15 seconds left, Carter drove to the hoop past two exhausted Trojan defenders for a 43-42 lead.

Christian warms up prior to the game.

But we are not finished folks, as the Patriots initiate a huge turnover with seven seconds left when the post player, Obioha, dribbled off his own foot after securing a sure mismatch down low on a screen.

Christian’s JAVIER JIMENEZ was the defender.

The Christian High Patriots now move on, now 24-9, to face the View Park Knights in Los Angeles on Saturday March 17th at 6 pm.

NOTABLES-CHRISTIAN-ISAIAH ROBINSON 6 points, 2 3 Pointers; JACKSON LARSEN 14 points, 1
three-pointer, 1/1 FT, 10 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 blocked shots; NASHOM CARTER 17 points, 3/6
F/T, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 turnovers.

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