Boys' basketball: Sierra moves step closer to title defense

Defending champion Sierra moved into the quarterfinals of the Class 4A state tournament with a convincing 86-63 win over Northridge on Saturday night.

The Stallions (23-2) overcame sloppy play with a stellar defense that kept the Northridge (19-5) offense in check.

“Our transition game was pretty good,” Sierra coach Otis Johnson said. “Jahmall (Fountain) did a good job of limiting them.”

The Stallions turned the ball over 22 times in the game, three times alone in the first minute. But Northridge was never able to capitalize because of Sierra’s intense trap defense. The Grizzlies struggled to get the ball up court to their shooting guard Taylor Guerrero. Northridge did not score its first field goal until a layup with 5 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

Guerrero came into the game averaging nearly 24 points, but went into the locker room at halftime with only two points.

Fountain led the way both on offense and defense for Sierra. The senior finished with a game-high 30 points and pulled in eight rebounds.

“Our defense forced them to take bad shots,” Fountain said. “We are going to have to keep everybody healthy and we will be all right.”

Northridge made a run after halftime, going on a 16-5 run to start the second half to cut the lead to eight points. The Grizzlies found a way to get the ball to Guerrero, who had 21 points in the second half.

The run ended when Fountain hit three 3-pointers in a row, which effectively ended any chance the Grizzlies had.

“It was defense, it was all defense,” said Sierra senior Kamryn Williams, who had 21 points and six rebounds. “Coach told us in the locker room to keep our patience and good things would come to us.”

The Stallions next face Thomas Jefferson on Friday at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden.

“We have three goals, one is to win league, one is to win regionals, which we did here tonight, and the last one is to get back to the big game,” Johnson said. “We got one step closer to that tonight.”