Rancho Cucamonga beats Damien, stays unbeaten in Baseline

HIGH SCHOOL BOYS BASKETBALL

Damien’s Lucas Arrieta shoots over Rancho Cucamonga’s Aiden Jensen, far left, and Tyler Pitts in Wednesday’s Baseline League game at Rancho Cucamonga. Terry Pierson — Staff

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By Pete Marshall

CORRESPONDENT

RANCHO CUCAMONGA — As successful a career as Rancho Cucamonga senior guard Aaron Glass has had, there are a couple of things he hadn’t yet accomplished: beat Damien and win a Baseline League title.

The Cougars jumped out to a 12-point lead in the first quarter en route to a 65-47 victory over Damien on Wednesday night. That crossed one of those goals off of Glass’ list and moved Rancho Cucamonga a step closer to accomplishing the other.

Rancho Cucamonga improved to 20-7 overall and 4-0 in league. With the win the Cougars clinched the No. 1 seed for the inaugural league tournament with one regular-season game remaining. Damien dropped to 18-7, 3-1.

The No. 1 seed means the Cougars have a first-round bye, will be at home for the semifinals, and would host the championship game if they advance. If the Cougars win the tournament, it would be the program’s first league title since 2013.

“I feel like we’re really starting to mesh now,” Glass said. “Playing super hard, getting in the gaps, jumping some of the passes that they’re making, and not getting lazy on the help side.”

Rancho Cucamonga went on a 12-0 run in the first quarter and never really looked back. Damien managed only 28 points in the first three quarters and never got closer than 13 points in the game’s final 12 minutes.

“We did a good job in the first quarter of executing, the second quarter I think we freelanced a little too much,” Cougars coach Bill Burke said. “But we did rebound the ball better in the first half, than in the second half.”

The Texas A&M-bound Glass, who scored a game-high 25 points and grabbed five rebounds, missed last Wednesday’s win over Etiwanda because of illness and was less than 100 percent for games last Friday and Saturday.

“We probably should’ve subbed him (Glass) out a little bit more,” Burke said of Wednesday’s game.

Damien, the defending league champion who had won six straight, was led by junior forward Eli Garner, who scored 12 of his team-high 16 points in the first half and had five rebounds.

Trailing 47-28 after three quarters, Damien upped the defensive pressure in the fourth quarter and forced 11 fourth-quarter turnovers. But the Spartans never got closer than 58-45 on a 3-pointer by Lucas Arrieta with 2:09 left.

“We weren’t making shots and they’re really good,” Damien coach Mike LeDuc said. “Put them together and it’s a recipe for a problem.”

LeDuc is not ready to talk about a potential rematch with the Cougars, since Damien might have as many as three games before a possible rematch in the league championship game.

“There’s so much standing in the way of what’s going to happen.” LeDuc said. “It’s the first time we’ve ever done this (league tournament). I’ve never done this before. We just prepare to play as good as we can every night. That’s what you can control.”

Aiden Jensen had 10 points and eight rebounds, Chu Chu Osuji had nine points and Mckel Shedrick added eight points and 13 rebounds for the Cougars.

JC Corneille scored seven of his nine points in the second half and Elijah Smith scored eight points for Damien.