Aaron McBride, No. 6 Corona Centennial steal CIF-Southern Section Open title over upstart St. John Bosco

ANAHEIM, California — Corona Centennial senior Aaron McBride made the play of a lifetime to give him and his teammates a record-setting title.  

The 6-foot-7 wing stole a pass near the top of the key, dribbled three-quarters of the court and sent down a dunk at the buzzer, giving the Huskies a wild 58-56 CIF-Southern Section Open Division championship game win over St. John Bosco Saturday at the Honda Center in Anaheim. 

With the dunk and victory, the Huskies became the first boys basketball team in Southern Section history to win three straight Open Division titles. 

A 13-1 run by Bosco, the sixth seed, had seemingly put the heavy underdog in complete command. A Xinyi Li 3-pointer and Brandon McCoy dunk capped the rally for the Braves who took a 56-52 lead with 2:21 left. 

But the defending state Open Division champions didn't panic. They've been in tough spots before. 

Eric Freeny connected on a left-hand layup to close to 56-54, then McBride drained a fadaway jumper off an inbounds pass to tie the game at 56-56 with 53.3 seconds left. 

After a pair of possessions, McBride, a Loyola Marymount commit, made the play of his young life at the most opportune time, lifting the sixth-ranked team in the nation to 29-3, while Bosco dropped to 26-6. 

Predictably McBride was absolutely mobbed by his teammates. 

“I really didn’t look up at the clock,” McBride told Eric-Paul Johnson of the Press-Enterprise. “I knew there wasn’t much time left, so I was just trying to push the ball up court as fast as I could. I just hoped there was enough time to go all the way.”

He wasn't just a hero at the end. McBride finished with game-high totals of 18 points and 11 rebounds. Freeny also had 18 points and Duke-bound guard Jared McCain added 15 points for the winners. 

Centennial will surely be the No. 1 seed in the CIF Southern Regional Open bracket which will be announced Sunday. Bosco will likely also get a into the Open Tournament. 

The Braves were a surprise winner of Pool B in bracket play, winning a three-way tiebreaker with higher ranked Harvard-Westlake and West Ranch. All three teams went 2-1 in pool play. That's because Bosco defeated Harvard-Westlake and finished with the least amount of seeding points to win the tiebreaker. 

They looked more than worthy Saturday and had the game in control until late. They got 15 points from sophomore Elzie Harrington, 13 by Jack Turner and 10 by Kade Bonam, another sophomore.

The Braves took a 16-12 lead after the first quarter but watched the Huskies go on a 16-7 run to take a 28-23 halftime lead. Bosco hung around and closed to 45-41 heading into the fourth. 

Fifteen turnovers ended up being Bosco's undoing, the last one being the most costly. 

See full game highlights below by Bryan Cabezas

Photos below from Nick Koza