Corona Centennial wins second straight Open Division boys basketball championship in unprecedented fashion
(Lead photo by Nick Koza)
CORONA, Calif. -- Corona Centennial made history on Friday night. Since the Southern Section switched the Open Division playoff basketball format to pool play from bracket play in 2019, no team has been as dominant as this year’s Huskies group was in the Open Division playoffs.
Corona Centennial beat Harvard-Westlake 68-48 to win their second straight Open crown on Friday, but they became the first champion in the pool play era to win all four of their games by at least 20 points.
The top seeded Huskies took down No. 8 Bishop Montgomery 78-53 in their first pool play game, No. 5 Damien 71-48 in game two and then No. 4 Crean Lutheran 91-46 in game three before Friday’s 20-point championship victory over No. 3 Harvard-Westlake.
Their run is unprecedented.
“This feels surreal,” Centennial head coach Josh Giles said. “We got a little sloppy in the third quarter and let them back in and then showed a lot of toughness to overcome that in the fourth.”
Despite the lopsided final score, Harvard-Westlake pushed Corona Centennial in the second half. The Wolverines got to within eight points of the Huskies late in the third quarter and also cut their deficit to nine a couple of other times in the second half, but that was as close as the game would get.
Star Centennial junior Jared McCain connected on a 3 at the end of the third quarter to put the Huskies ahead 46-35 and then again with 3:23 to play in the fourth to give his team a 58-43 advantage.
“Jared hit an unbelievably huge three there to kind of break the game open,” Giles said. “That was awesome.”
McCain finished with a game high 20 points for the Huskies. Junior big man Devin Williams added 17 and senior guard Donovan Dent scored 12.
FRUSTRATING NIGHT FOR HARVARD-WESTLAKE
Wolverines senior Cameron Thrower picked up his third foul 30 seconds into the second quarter on Friday and then had to sit for the remainder of the half. Harvard-Westlake didn’t score a single field goal in the second quarter following Thrower’s exit and trailed at the break 35-18.
“Our two senior starters picked up fouls early,” Harvard-Westlake head coach David Rebibo said. “[Thrower and Landon Lewis] were done for the half and it impacted us greatly.”
Thrower scored 15 second half points and the Wolverines fought back in the third quarter, but Harvard-Westlake never got within two possessions of Corona Centennial in the final two quarters.
“I’m proud of our guys, they didn’t give in,” Rebibo said. “They kept fighting. The final score in my opinion isn’t indicative of how close this game was in the second half. But testament to [Centennial], they’re a heck of a team.”
CENTENNIAL STILL GETS IT DONE WITHOUT KYLAN BOSWELL
Kylan Boswell, arguably the top player on last season's championship Corona Centennial team, transferred to AZ Compass Prep in the offseason. At the time, the move looked like a significant blow to the Huskies.
But months removed, it's clear that wasn't the case.
"That just shows you how tough those guys are," Giles said pointing to his team celebrating their championship win. "That whole next man up mentality that we have shows you how tough they are, how hard they worked and how much they've improved. Yes, he left. We still have them."
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