TORRANCE — There was a buzz in the building an hour before the Bishop Montgomery and Sierra Canyon boys basketball teams tipped off Tuesday’s second-round, pool-play game in the CIF Southern Section Open Division playoffs.
The Knights and Trailblazers, both winless after the Pool A opener, were already hungry to avoid another loss. The early, chippy play ignited an emotional atmosphere that only grew when Lakers star LeBron James, father of Sierra Canyon’s Bronny and Bryce James, took his seat on the baseline near the entrance midway through the first quarter.
By the end of the night, King James was left saluting Bishop Montgomery senior guard Christian Jones.
Jones made a go-ahead 3-pointer with 3.9 seconds left, pointing directly at the NBA’s all-time scoring leader after the shot, to lift the fourth-seeded Knights over the eighth-seeded Trailblazers, 51-49.
“I pointed directly at LeBron and he just shook his head up and down,” Jones said of the eye contact and sign of respect. “He couldn’t say nothing.”
Bishop Montgomery (26-3) will travel Friday to face No. 1 seed Centennial with a spot in the CIF-SS Open Division championship game on the line. The Huskies defeated No. 5 seed Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks 83-63 in the other Pool A contest Tuesday.
“Every possession was so critical,” Knights coach Doug Mitchell said of a final quarter that was tied 36-36 to start and knotted on five other occasions. “It’s just one of those games where you keep trying to figure out a way to make a play.”
The Knights were nearly on the other end of the thrilling finish.
Sierra Canyon senior Ashton Hardaway, who spent his first two years at Bishop Montgomery before briefly moving to Texas and returning to play for the Trailblazers, delivered his own big 3-pointer to put his team up 49-48 with 11.5 seconds to play.
“He’s a great shooter and he hit shots,” Mitchell said of Hardaway, who finished with a team-high 13 points.
On the next trip down, the initial plan was to go to the Knights’ star big man, Xavier Edmonds, who scored a game-high 24 points. Mitchell knew Sierra Canyon would look to crowd the 6-8 senior forward, so he told Jones to be ready to “make the read” and be ready to shoot when teammate Kelcy Phipps inevitably sent the pass his way.
“At the end of the first quarter I missed a shot just like that one coming off a down-screen,” said Jones, who scored all seven of his points after halftime. “At the end, I said this is the exact same shot. I just shot it and it was just cash.”
The Trailblazers (20-9) had a chance to tie or take the lead. Hardaway lost the ball and doubled over near midcourt with 2.3 seconds left, and tempers flared as players on each team got tangled up.
Edmonds and Sierra Canyon big man Jimmy Oladokun were assessed double technical fouls, with Oladokun ejected for picking up his second, but Jones missed a pair of free throws.
After a timeout with two seconds left, Trailblazers guard Osiris Nalls’ heave from beyond midcourt hit the top of the backboard to set off the celebration.
Nalls and Bronny James had 11 points apiece.
Sierra Canyon, which was without Justin Pippen (back spasms) and Isaiah Elohim (ankle), will wrap up pool play at Notre Dame on Friday.
Through three quarters, Edmonds was the Bishop Montgomery offense as he accounted for half of the 36 points. When Oladokun picked up his third foul with 6:07 left in the second, Edmonds shook off a slow start.
After trailing by as many as eight points early in the second, Edmonds put the Knights over the hump with a layup to open the fourth. Later, with 1:35 left, his third effort on a putback after two misses snapped a 46-46 tie and set up the dramatic finish.
“I had to take advantage of my match-up and I did just that,” Edmonds said.
“The first (loss in pool play) hurt us bad and we knew we had to be on top of our stuff in practice. We knew this game was important and now we’re onto the next one.”
The victory also avenged a loss to Sierra Canyon in the 2019 Open Division final.
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