De La Mora paces Santiago to its first CIF-SS championship

CIF-SS BOYS BASKETBALL

Santiago’s Jorden De La Mora tries to put up a shot despite tight defense from Ramona’s Jeremy Garcia in Saturday’s CIF-SS Division 4AA title game. photo by Steve Fryer

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By Steve Fryer

sfryer@scng.com

ONTARIO — High school basketball teams usually do not shoot well from outside in large arenas.

Santiago shot 56% on 3-point shots Saturday at Toyota Arena en route to a 64-49 win over Ramona in the CIF Southern Section Division 4AA boys basketball championship game.

The Cavaliers won their first CIF championship in the sport in their first boys basketball championship game.

“If you don’t shoot with confidence,” said Santiago’s Jorden De La Mora, “it’s not going to go in.”

Santiago shot with confidence and made 9 of 16 3-point attempts. On all shots Santiago was 22 of 45 (49%).

De La Mora, a 6-foot-2 senior guard, scored a game-high 28 points. He was 8 of 17 on all shots and 4 of 6 on 3s. De La Mora was outstanding throughout the playoffs, scoring 61 points over Santiago’s wins in the quarterfinals and semifinals.

Santiago’s Jayden Baude, also a 6-2 senior guard, scored 12 points with a team-high seven rebounds. Cavaliers 6-4 senior forward Jerell Guidry scored 10 points with six rebounds.

Two important baskets for Santiago were scored by others on the team. With Ramona having sliced the Santiago lead to seven points with under two minutes remaining, Cavaliers 5-6 senior Anthony Bermudez made a 3-pointer as did senior forward Diego Bracamonte seconds later to get the lead to 13 points.

Bermudez finished with six points, Bracamonte with eight.

Ramona shot 30% from the floor and 15% on 3-point tries.

Santiago (22-11) and Ramona (26-7) continue the season with the CIF Southern California Regional playoffs that begin Tuesday.

Santiago started Saturday’s game strong. De La Mora scored 10 points in the first quarter and the Cavaliers had a 22-10 lead going into the second quarter.

The Cavaliers led by as many as 16 points in the second quarter, answering every Ramona surge with clutch baskets. It was 35-23 at halftime.

A 3 by De La Mora put Santiago on top 40-23 early in the third quarter. Ramona put together an 11-2 run late in the quarter to make it 42-34. De La Mora then made a deep 3 to give the Cavaliers a 45-34 lead going into the final quarter.