![\"Maxi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772358683_483_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nThere are All-Star teams. Then there\u2019s Sierra Canyon\u2019s boys\u2019 basketball team, made up of two McDonald\u2019s All-Americans, a former Trinity League MVP, a star guard from North Carolina and several other newcomers that complete a nine-man rotation that no one in Southern California has been able to beat.<\/p>\n
Coach Andre Chevalier pushes the buttons and has so much depth that it gives him the kind of options any coach would welcome. About the only question regarding the Trailblazers has been with so many top players, would they be unselfish enough to share the ball with teammates?<\/p>\n
The answer is a resounding yes. The Trailblazers (27-1) won their first Southern Section Open Division title since the pandemic season of 2020 on Saturday night, defeating Mission League rival Harvard-Westlake 59-53 at Toyota Arena in Ontario.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Maxi Adams of Sierra Canyon celebrates the Open Division championship.<\/p>\n
(Steve Galluzzo)<\/p>\n
Harvard-Westlake kept battling despite trailing by 11 points at halftime. They trailed 56-53 with 19 seconds left after a three by Joe Sterling. The Trailblazers were able to clinch victory thanks to one free throw from JJ Sati-Grier and two from Brannon Martinsen. Martinsen finished with 18 points, Brandon McCoy had 13 points and Maxi Adams had 12 points.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis group has been amazing,\u201d Chevalier said. \u201cIt\u2019s been one of the best seasons, maybe ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Said Harvard-Westlake coach David Rebibo: \u201cI thought they made some big shots in big moments, but I\u2019m incredibly proud of our fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
No opponent had finished within 13 points of Sierra Canyon over the last month, and Chevalier gave credit to Rebibo and the Wolverines for taking them to the brink.<\/p>\n
\u201cDavid Rebibo is a heck of a coach,\u201d he said. \u201cNo matter what roster we have, he always manages to have an elite team every year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sterling finished with 18 points and Pierce Thompson scored 15 points.<\/p>\n
Sierra Canyon has reached peak form. One curiosity was seeing how well the Trailblazers would fare leaving their comfortable home court in Chatsworth to play in an arena setting. But there was little difference.<\/p>\n
More important is Sierra Canyon\u2019s depth, which was put on display with seven minutes left in the fourth quarter after McDonald\u2019s All-American McCoy picked up his fourth foul and went to the bench with a 45-39 lead. Over the next 2\u00bd minutes, Sierra Canyon\u2019s lead expanded to 12 points, aided by threes from Sati-Grier, a sophomore guard from North Carolina, and Martinsen, who was the Trinity League MVP two years ago at Mater Dei. That\u2019s the challenge in trying to topple the Trailblazers \u2014 there\u2019s always someone ready to step forward to deliver.<\/p>\n
Now the Trailblazers can get ready to be the No. 1 seed in the Southern California Open Division regional playoffs, with an opportunity to advance to the state championship game in Sacramento in two weeks. The team looks focused, and even if one or two top players are off their games, the magic of being nine deep is knowing there\u2019s always someone ready to come to the rescue.<\/p>\n
Chevalier, though, wondered, \u201cCan we stay hungry?\u201d<\/p>\n
McCoy answered that he\u2019s \u201cstarving\u201d for a state championship in the postgame news conference, which made his coach smile.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been pretty clear for more than a month that Sierra Canyon has separated itself, and it will take a major upset to halt the Trailblazers\u2019 clear path to Sacramento.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are All-Star teams. Then there\u2019s Sierra Canyon\u2019s boys\u2019 basketball team, made up of two McDonald\u2019s All-Americans, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[92604,92605,92606,4690,92609,92608,48,52,51,9925,47,50,49,34672,5463,6138,92607,1417,29947,30259,72],"class_list":{"0":"post-199157","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-boy-basketball","9":"tag-brannon-martinsen","10":"tag-chevalier","11":"tag-coach","12":"tag-former-trinity-league-mvp","13":"tag-jj-sati-grier","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-la-headlines","16":"tag-la-news","17":"tag-last-month","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","20":"tag-los-angeles-news","21":"tag-mcdonald","22":"tag-minute","23":"tag-north-carolina","24":"tag-open-division-title","25":"tag-point","26":"tag-sierra-canyon","27":"tag-trailblazers","28":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}