No. 1 Chino Hills and final Ball brothers show takes on De La Salle

Video: Chino Hills ready for state championship game

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The much ballyhooed finale of the Ball brother show will fittingly be performed as the final high school act at Sleep Train Arena.

After 24 years and 19 state-title events at the home of the Sacramento Kings, Sleep Train goes beddy-bye after this season. It's getting demolished in favor of state-of-the-art Golden 1 Arena.

Tucking Sleep Train away is the greatest prep show on the hardwood.



Chino Hills (34-0), the consensus No. 1 team in the country, will take on one of the most well known high schools sports programs in the land, the De La Salle (Concord) Spartans -- the football program was featured in a major motion picture, "When the Game Stands Tall."

De La Salle is plenty good in other sports also, evidenced by the basketball team going after its third state title in its sixth finals appearance. 

Despite a stellar 31-2 season under first-year coach A.J. Kuhle and two four-year starters -- Jordan Ratinho, a USF commit, and Nikhil Peters -- the Spartans aren't given much of a chance against these high-speed Huskies, who have been compared to the Loyola Marymount college teams of the late 1980s and have scored at least 100 points 18 times this year, tying a California record.

Led by senior Lonzo Ball, a 6-foot-6 senior point guard compared to a taller and more vertical Jason Kidd, who orchestrates this unique frenetic brand of hoops while averaging nearly a triple-double. He recently was named the Naismith National Player of the Year.

"I have one more game to play in high school and want to make the most of it," Ball said this week.

His younger brothers, 6-6 junior shooting guard LiAngelo Ball (27.7 points per game), and 5-10 freshman LaMelo Ball (16.6), have the green light to take shots from Stephen Curry territory.



They're all UCLA commits.

"We can't take any prisoners," LiAngelo said. "We just have to come out hard and be ready to play … like it's our hardest and last game."

Add in the largely under-the-radar but over-the-rim play of supremely athletic 6-5 junior Elizjah Scott (16.0 ppg) and 6-9 freshman post Onyeka Okongwu, and you have what some are calling the best team in California, and national, history.

It's not lost upon Kuhle.

"Obviously everyone is talking about them being one of the very best teams in state history and after seeing them that is definitely the case," Kuhle said. "They are a very impressive group."

No cupcakes



Besides sweeping through national foes at the City of Palms and MaxPreps Holiday Classic, the Huskies have romped over one-time nationally-ranked Southern California teams in regional and section play. They beat Bishop Montgomery (Torrance), Foothills Christian (El Cajon), Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth) and Mater Dei (Santa Ana) by 22, 20, 22 and 48 points, respectively.

"We're not talking cupcakes," said MaxPreps national basketball editor Jason Hickman. "The way they have dominated in postseason is absolutely unbelievable."

Hickman, who has ranked teams nationally for eight years and followed the landscape for much longer than that, said the Huskies should be considered as one of the top teams over the last decade.

"They should definitely be in the discussion," he said.

There's no questioning the team's popularity and following, Hickman says.

The Huskies sell out all venues, opposing coaches pay to watch their games and even the New York Times did an expose on the team.



"In terms of drawing eyeballs, they are definitely the most compelling team to come along in this era," he said. "People are more interested in them than any other team I can remember covering. … A combination of three brothers putting up crazy statistics in that style of play is definitely eye-popping."

Prove people wrong

But De La Salle will try to suffocate that style, and the Spartans have traditionally had success doing it. That's what led them to state titles in 2000, a team Kuhle played on, and 2007. Kuhle has continued that tradition.

The Spartans held their last four opponents — Modesto Christian, Sacramento, Salesian (Richmond) and Monte Vista (Danville) — to 23, 19, 19 and 31 points below their season averages. Still, few are giving De La Salle much of a chance, which puts the Spartans in an unusual spot.

"I mean, personally it's fine because we can go in with a nothing-to-lose attitude," said Ratinho, who averages better than 18 points, seven rebounds and five assists per game. "But I also think people underestimate us. We're going to prove people wrong who don't give us the respect we deserve. It's going to be a battle and we're going to give it all we have.

"We know what they do and we know what we do. We're going to do what we do and execute what are coaches have laid out for us all year. It will show on the court."



Lonzo Ball, who fouled out in regulation of last year's state title game, a 79-71 double-overtime defeat to De La Salle league-rival San Ramon Valley (Danville), said the Huskies are ready. It will likely be the last time the Ball brothers play together. Lonzo is a projected 2017 NBA lottery pick. 

"We haven't heard too much about (De La Salle) but coach said they're tough," Lonzo said. "We feel like we're a little tougher. We're going to try to get up and down the court and play our game."