Besant Hill Beats Sierra Canyon, 55-45
March 5, 2010
Jack Pollon
The Sierra Canyon of Chatsworth boys’ basketball team had some very big wins this season but came up short in it’s biggest game to date in a 55-45 defeat against Besant Hill of Ojai in the Div. 5-A championship game at Colony High in Ontario.
The Trailblazers led early but were undone by the Coyotes (26-2) huge size advantage.
6’4 guard Ivan Matip had 24 points and 10 rebounds, Santa Clara-bound forward Yannick Atanga had 14 points and 25 rebounds and Francios Tchoyi chipped in eight points to lead Besant Hill.
Besant Hill won it’s second consecutive championship after claiming the Div. VI-A title last season.
“It was very hard for us because the way they were rebounding we couldn’t get any second shots,” Sierra Canyon guard Michael Cohen said.
Sophomore Jesse Howell had 14 points and Michael Cohen had 13 to lead Sierra Canyon.
The Trailblazers only trailed 30-29 at halftime but managed only 16 second half points on five of 33 shooting from the field.
“We just went cold,” Cohen said. “They had easy putbacks. We had to work much harder to get shots.”
Howell and Cohen each had 12 points in the first half helping Sierra Canyon to a 21-13 lead.
However, Matip took over from there scoring 12 points in the second quarter during a 14-0 run to get the Coyotes right back in the game.
Besant Hill continued to keep up the pressure in the third quarter when Rudolfs Arnicans made two 3-pointers and Matip and Atanga combined to score the first 11 points of the fourth quarter.
Atanga’s putback at the 4:44 mark in the fourth quarter gave Besant Hill it’s biggest advantage at 46-37. Then, Matip added a basket and a 3-pointer and the Coyotes pulled away.
Sierra Canyon had beaten top-programs such as Cleveland of Reseda, Westlake of Westlake Village, Div. 4-A finalists Crespi of Encino and Alemany of Mission Hills and Chaminade of West Hills.
Besant Hill held advantages in almost every key category.
The Coyotes out shot Sierra Canyon 36% to 25%, had 52 rebounds to 38, had nine more assists and Atanga had seven blocked shots.
The Trailblazers were a confident bunch coming in and wanted to piggyback the girls’ team’s championship won last season but it wasn’t meant to be.
The season is not over as the Trailblazers will be included in the Div. 5 state playoffs next week.