For the first time in school history No. 2
Roosevelt (Eastvale) will play in California's Open Division championship after defeating No. 11
Notre Dame (Sherman Oaks) 79-76 in a back and forth battle.
It was a rematch of the Open Division Southern Section title game just 11 days ago, a 74-67 Roosevelt win.
With Draymond Green seated courtside, Roosevelt was led by McDonald’s All American
Brayden Burries, who scored 37 points. New Mexico pledge
Issac Williamson added 21 for the winners.
Notre Dame was paced by 23 points from
Tyran Stokes, the No. 1 junior in the country. Sophomore
NaVorro Bowman Jr. also came up big for the Knights with several key shots in the fourth quarter.
McDonald’s All American Brayden Burries of Roosevelt (Eastvale) put up 37 points as the Mustangs topped Notre Dame (Sherman Oaks) 79-76 to advance to the CIF State Open Division championship on Saturday. (FILE PHOTO: Kevin Ballton)
Burries and Williamson helped Roosevelt jump out to a 13-point lead in the first half before Stokes took over with 14 third-quarter points to send Notre Dame into the fourth with a 54-53 lead.
The fourth quarter saw numerous lead changes as Burries and Bowman traded big baskets to give their respective squads the lead.
Burries hit three of his seven 3-pointers with under three minutes to play. Each one of those came with his squad trailing by 1-point.
Bowman answered back twice with shots to take the lead.
Roosevelt got a stop up 70-68 with under a minute to play and made its free throws to hold on to win the game 79-76.
Mustangs head coach Stephen Singleton is now one game away from winning his third state championship. He won with Roosevelt in 2017 at the Division I level.
Singleton’s first title was in 2001 at Dominguez with Tyson Chandler leading the way.
The opponent in Sacramento will be No. 23
Archbishop Riordan (San Francisco), which will represent Northern California after defeating
De La Salle (Concord) 52-40 tonight.
Burries, regarded as a top 10 player nationally in the senior class, had 14 points in the first half before exploding to score 23 in the second en route to his game-high 37.
Coming up clutch in the third and fourth quarters is second nature for the Roosevelt senior. Burries had 17 points in the second half 11 days ago against Notre Dame. Saturday he scored 29 points as Roosevelt topped then No. 2
Harvard-Westlake (Studio City) to advance to tonight’s contest.
Williamson was second on the team in scoring with 21 points in the game while knocking down three 3-point baskets. Senior
Myles Walker had 10 points and 10 assists while
Dominic Copenhagen scored 8 points.
Stokes led the way for Notre Dame with 23 points and Bowman had 21.
