RANCHO CUCAMONGA — Etiwanda girls basketball coach Stan Delus fully expected Rancho Christian to push the pace Saturday night.
It turned out not to be a problem for Etiwanda.
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Etiwanda scored 37 points in the second quarter alone and finished with its most points since 2007 in a 109-77 nonleague victory on Senior Night at Etiwanda High School. It also marks the team’s 17th consecutive win.
It was the second-to-last game of the regular season for both teams. Etiwanda (21-4) entered the week ranked No. 2 in the CIF Southern Section, while Rancho Christian (20-7) was ranked 16th.
Etiwanda hosts Los Osos for the Baseline League title Wednesday, while Rancho Christian hosts Moreno Valley Monday with a chance to earn a share of the Ivy League title.
“He (Rancho Christian coach Marlon Wells) runs a fast, frenetic pace,” Delus said. “It’s to out-gun you and out-shoot you. We knew they were going to do a lot of running and jumping and forcing us to take bad shots. But I like the fact that we can play at different tempos and different paces.”
Etiwanda’s two seniors who were selected to play in the McDonald’s All American game led the way: Aliyahna “Puff” Morris scored 19 of her team-high 29 points in the first half to lead Etiwanda, while Grace Knox added 28 points and 11 rebounds.
“I love fast-paced games,” the Cal-bound Morris said. “I think we’re doing much better than we were at the beginning of the season. I like the momentum we have now. Hopefully, we can finish off strong.”
“We tried to move at our own pace, which was fast,” the LSU-bound Knox said. “They did speed us up, but I think we kept it together. Them pressing backfired on them a little bit on them because it got them tired and we got more open looks.”
Etiwanda never trailed in the game, and scored 37 points in the second quarter to take a 59-41 halftime lead. Rancho Christian got as close as 11 points (72-61) in the third quarter but ran out of gas against a deeper opponent.
“I think we competed. I think we played hard,” Wells said. “We have a small margin of error with the depth of the bench and inexperience. Too many turnovers, missed layups, not rebounding kind of hurt us. It was a fun game to coach and a fun game to be part of, a lot of scoring.”
Rancho Christian was led by Gonzaga-bound guard Julia Wilson, who scored a game-high 35 points on 11-of-23 shooting while addinfg11 rebounds. Ebony Taylor-Smith made four 3-pointers and scored 15 points.
“Julia Wilson, she is a handful,” Delus said. “She deserves everything that she’s going to get and she’s going to be amazing when she gets to Gonzaga. I got to coach her in club a couple of years ago.”
Etiwanda had nine players score in the game, with sophomore Aliyah Phillips scoring 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting, while Shaena Brew scored 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting.
Delus wasn’t completely pleased with the effort Saturday, specifically with the defense, which allowed its second-most points this season and most since Dec. 14.
“I think I’m a little more disappointed defensively in that we had a lot of blown assignments,” Delus said. “That’s uncharacteristic of us, allowing Julia to get downhill, giving up a lot of open 3s to their shooters because we weren’t rotating properly. But it’s fixable.”
Wells admitted when he scheduled Etiwanda he was hoping his team would be in position to make the Open Division. While Rancho Christian is more likely to be in Division 1, his team could get something from Saturday’s matchup, which was a big improvement over a matchup a year ago between the teams when Etiwanda won by 71.
“We did a good job in the summer of skill development,” Wells said. “We’ve gotten better, but they’re still elite.”
