Etiwanda boys basketball wins Inland Empire Classic title, beating Rancho Verde

Rancho Cucamonga >> Opposing coaches were hoping maybe this year, Etiwanda’s boys basketball team would be down.

After all, the Eagles graduated eight seniors and all five starters from last year’s team that went 30-4 and lost only once before the playoffs. The Eagles returned only two players with varsity experience.

But Etiwanda had a core group of sophomores who went undefeated as a junior varsity team last year and now are ready for the varsity level.

It’s only November, but Etiwanda showed Saturday that it won’t be a pushover this year. The Eagles’ suffocating defense held Moreno Valley Rancho Verde to 22 points in the first three quarters en route to a 72-49 victory in the championship game of the Inland Empire Classic at Rancho Cucamonga High School.

“It’s so early in the year, I wasn’t sure if these guys quite understood our defensive system,” Etiwanda coach Dave Kleckner said. “But they did a really nice job. I think the biggest thing was that we weren’t out of position.”

And a strength for Etiwanda (5-0) is its depth, which was key in winning a tournament that included playing five games in six days.

“When we go to our bench, we don’t have much of a dropoff,” Kleckner said. “We played 10 guys tonight.”

Junior Tyree Campbell led Etiwanda with 15 points, making 6 of his 8 shots from the field, and made the all-tournament team. Sophomore Jahmai Mashack added 14 points, despite picking up two early fouls. In addition to Campbell, junior Darryl Jackson (four points) made the all-tournament team. Junior Camren Pierce, one of two returners with varsity experience, was named tournament MVP despite scoring only seven points Saturday.

It was a very balanced attack as eight different Etiwanda players scored in the first half alone, when the Eagles took a 30-13 lead. Ten players scored in the game for Etiwanda.

Rancho Verde (4-1), which had beaten Etiwanda twice in the playoffs in recent years, is not as deep and it showed. The Mustangs made just 3 of 16 shots from the field in the first half and 6 of 27 in the first three quarters.

“We were really only playing six guys, because two of our guys are still playing football (Jaxen Turner and Kevin Barnes),” Rancho Verde coach Brandon Baker said. “And it’s hard to play five games in six days. We had a hard time getting too many open looks. Even when Tory (San Antonio) went off in the fourth quarter, he had a guy on him.”

San Antonio scored a game-high 30 points for Rancho Verde, 24 in the fourth quarter. But Etiwanda, which closed the third quarter with a 16-2 run to take a 55-22 lead, was never threatened in the fourth. San Antonio and Anthony Thomas (nine points), who are both seniors, made the all-tournament team for Rancho Verde.

The tournament could be considered as taking a step forward for Rancho Verde, which lost in the tournament semifinals the last two years.

Earlier in the evening, Colony captured third place in the tournament with a 74-68 win over Hesperia. Colony, which gave Etiwanda its closest game of the tournament in the semifinals, was led by all-tournament players Sedrick Altman (30 points) and Brenton Knapper (19).

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