Boys Basketball: Pasadena, Blair Both on Road to CIF State Regional Quarterfinals Saturday; Bulldogs Heading to San Diego, Vikings off to Burbank

By Brian Reed-Baiotto It shouldn’t surprise people that the two Pasadena area basketball programs with the most wins this season are the same pair playing in the CIF State Regional quarterfinals tonight (Saturday). Blair (25-7) and Pasadena (25-6) both rebounded from CIF-SS title game defeats last weekend at APU with CIF State victories on Wednesday. […]

By Brian Reed-Baiotto

It shouldn’t surprise people that the two Pasadena area basketball programs with the most wins this season are the same pair playing in the CIF State Regional quarterfinals tonight (Saturday).

Blair (25-7) and Pasadena (25-6) both rebounded from CIF-SS title game defeats last weekend at APU with CIF State victories on Wednesday.

The Bulldogs and Vikings will need to be road warriors if they want their season’s and in many cases, their careers to continue.

Pasadena will travel 110 miles to Mission Hills in San Marcos, and Blair has just a 13 mile bus ride to take on Burbank.

Both games tip off at 6 p.m.

CIF State Division 2: Pasadena (25-6) at Mission Hills (22-8):

The Bulldogs have won 20 of their last 21 games, including a 73-67 victory at Heritage Christian on Wednesday night.

Pasadena led for most of the game, thanks to 30 points from Darius Brown II, 21 points and 11 rebounds from Bryce Hamilton, and sophomore Darius Mason added 10 points.

Mission Hills won the San Diego section, 76-61, on March 2 over La Jolla Country Day.

The Grizzlies went out to Moreno Valley in the first round of the CIF State playoffs and defeated the CIF-SS Division 1-AA champs, Rancho Verde, 57-48.

How evenly matched up are these two teams offensively?

After 61 games (combined), Mission Hills has scored 2,024 points, while Pasadena is just one point behind at 2,023.

Mission Hills averages 67 points per game, as the Bulldogs score 65 a night.

Pasadena is ranked No. 33 in the state by MaxPreps and the Grizzlies are No. 70.

If the Bulldogs can get production offensively from their bench and role players, their chances of moving into the regional semifinals goes up exponentially.

Quotable:

PHS forward Bryce Hamilton: “There is no difference between state and CIF (the intensity, excitement to play). We come with the same mentality, which is to win and to win a championship. It felt good to come back on the court. We had to redeem ourselves from APU, so we were all pumped up to play.”

PHS point guard: Darius Brown II: “We don’t want to let our season end on a bad note, so therefore, we’re ready. If anything, state is a bigger stage and we’re ready for it.”

Pasadena coach Tony Brooks: “The kids are excited about playing this weekend in the CIF State regional quarterfinals. At this point, playing on the road makes this experience more exciting, because it is the ultimate competitive environment. We love to compete and as a team we would like to continue our season for as long as we can. The distance that we travel or the opponent that we play does not matter. We are having a great time challenging ourselves on how far we can go!”

By The Numbers:

League finishes:
Pasadena: Pacific League, 14-0 (first place)
Mission Hills: Avocado (East) League, 6-1 (second place)

** CIF State Division 4: Blair (25-7) at Burbank (24-9):

Blair is arguably the most balanced team in the area.

As least in terms of their offensive output.

The Vikings have six players averaging at or over the 10-point per game mark.

But make no mistake about it, the Vikings can and will go as far as their star junior Dez Washington takes them.

He not only has 137 points in six postseason games, he had the put-back at the buzzer to defeat Palisades on Wednesday.

Washington averages 20-plus a night and typically grabs 10 rebounds or more per game.

Blair beat Palisades without two of those six mentioned above.

Dallas Murray and Gabe Snow sat out with injuries, but Snow is ‘probable’ to play tonight.

Murray, though, will not see any action.

That means, as they did Wednesday night, three clutch senior guards (Jack Dakan, Jordan Hall, Caleb Smith) will need to do their share and pick up some of the slack that Murray left behind.

All three senior guards made huge shots when the Vikings needed them most.

Dakan had 11, including three 3-point baskets, Hall had just 7 points, but he made the second biggest shot of the night.

Hall hit a 3-pointer with 20 seconds left to tie the game at 53-53.

Smith scored 11 points, but just as importantly, the senior point guard dished out 6 assists.

Smith also has 14 assists in the last two playoff games.

Burbank, five days after losing at the buzzer in overtime at APU, earned a 2-point victory over Madera.

Oddly enough, both Blair and Burbank won their games by exact scores of 55-53 on Wednesday to advance.

Blair averages 72 points per night and Burbank pours in 61.

Burbank finished 8-4 in the Pacific League and went 0-4 against Pasadena and Muir in league play. They finished in fourth place.

Blair was 7-3, which was good enough for a second-place finish in the Rio Hondo League behind La Canada.

Quotable:

Blair junior Dez Washington: “The intensity is way more, because the stakes are higher now. We are playing for something bigger. I hope my team took from Wednesday’s game is the fourth quarter defense that we applied. We will need to do that the whole game against Burbank.”

Blair senior Jack Daken: “The intensity is much greate. If we lost, we would still have a game. But now, if we lose, we are done. Being one of the seniors, I don’t want that to happen. I hope we play defense and use the same ball movement as we did on Wednesday. We can’t risk starting out slow or taking defensive possessions off. My role is to hit shots, stop penetration and take charges.”

Blair coach Alon Margalit: “We still have plenty of weapons. Our guys just need to defend hard and get stops, and let our defense fuel our offense. We need to defend, rebound, play with more focus on a possession to possession bass and play with more efficiency and confidence on the offensive end to win this game on the road against a very tough opponent in a very hostile environment.”

 

 

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