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Ontario Christian girls basketball team holds off Etiwanda to capture Open Division title – San Bernardino Sun

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ONTARIO — There admittedly were some nerves at the outset for a young Ontario Christian girls basketball team playing in its first CIF Southern Section championship game together.

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Ontario Christian celebrates after defeating Etiwanda in the CIF Southern Section Open Division girls basketball championship game at Toyota Arena in Ontario on Saturday, Mar. 1, 2025. Ontario Christian defeated Etiwanda 65-63 in the CIF Southern Section Open Division girls basketball championship game.(Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

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But when it came to crunch time, those freshmen and sophomores were playing like veterans.

Sophomore Kaleena Smith made the tying and go-ahead free throws with 17.6 seconds left and top-seeded and No. 1-nationally ranked Ontario Christian (29-1) pulled out a 65-63 victory over second-seeded Etiwanda in the Open Division championship game Saturday night at Toyota Arena.

It is the first CIF-SS championship for the Knights since 1980. It is the second time this season that Ontario Christian defeated Etiwanda, following a 74-66 win in a November tournament.

“Job’s still not done,” Knights coach Aundre Cummings said. “We get about 24 hours to celebrate and then we have to go get state. But they should enjoy this. They’ve done something (win the Open Division) that the school has never done. These girls have just bought in so much.”

Etiwanda, which was making its fourth straight CIF-SS Open Division finals appearance after winning two of the previous three titles, was riding a 21-game winning streak entering Saturday.

The teams will almost definitely be seeded No. 1 1 and No. 2 for the CIF State Open Division playoffs that begin Wednesday, so the teams could face each other again in the SoCal regional final.

The Eagles had taken a 63-59 lead on a 3-pointer by Chasity Rice with 1:50 left.

But on the next Ontario Christian possession, the Eagles continued with the strategy of double-teaming Smith in the half court. And Smith found freshman Tati Griffin (game-high 29 points, 12 rebounds) wide open for a 3-pointer that made it 63-62 with 1:31 left.

“Kaleena’s going to pass the ball to her teammates, because she trusts them. I had complete confidence in Kaleena with the ball, she’d make the best decision and she did,” Cummings said.

“We had an adjustment to blitz and rotate,” Etiwanda coach Stan Delus said. “We blitzed, but we did not rotate.”

“I always remain confident in myself,” Griffin said. “I work hard every day. I take no days off, even when I’m sick.”

The game remained 63-62 until Smith attacked the basket and was fouled with 17.6 seconds left, a call that some observers, including Delus felt should’ve been a jump ball instead of a foul.

“I loved Kaleena’s aggressiveness to get to the rim,” Cummings said. “It’s what we wanted to do. Refs were calling chippy fouls for both teams. It was aligned with how they called the game. I think it was a foul because they had been calling it both ways. Although if it had been them (getting the foul call), I probably wouldn’t have agreed.”

“I had to see what the whistle was. I felt like it was that way the whole game,” Smith admitted. “I was trying to attack the gap … and I got the foul call.”

Smith (13 points, eight assists) calmly knocked down both free throws for a 64-63 lead. Aliyahna Morris missed a shot in the lane with 2.3 seconds left. The ball went out of bounds and Smith made another free throw with 0.2 seconds left for the final score.

It was a wild finish to a game in which Etiwanda jumped out to a 13-4 lead in the first quarter. Ontario Christian rallied back to take a 29-27 halftime lead and extended the lead to 53-40 in the third quarter. Etiwanda retook the lead on a Grace Knox 3-pointer that made it 60-59 with 2:31 left, but it was Ontario Christian that had the final answer.

Ontario Christian won despite making just 4 of 19 shots from 3-point range, while the Eagles made 10 of 23. But the Knights dominated on the boards (39-25) and went 17 of 19 from the line while Etiwanda made just 5 of 6.



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