Crespi boys basketball overcomes sluggish start to beat Rancho Cucamonga

ENCINO — After a sluggish start to the night, Crespi boys’ basketball’s energy powered the team past Rancho Cucamonga.

The Celts blasted the visiting Cougars, 77-57, on Friday, ending a two-game skid.

Crespi (7-4) got off to a slow start as the team quickly found itself in a 7-0 hole before its bench jump-started the team.

“It was a long week, high school athletes are going through a lot,” Celts coach and NBA champion Derek Fisher said. “We had final exams this week, so it was a stressful week, academically, and we had to kind of navigate and monitor the energy levels throughout the week in practice. I think we were a little slow to start because we hadn’t played a game since Saturday. But the guys deserve a lot of credit for that energy building as the game moved on.”

Celts junior Jasiah Williams added eight of his game-high 18 points in the first quarter, including Crespi’s first five points of the game, as the starters couldn’t find a score for the majority of the first quarter.

“Jasiah gives us a level of depth that we’ve been building towards over the last couple years,” Fisher said. “It’s really important for good teams to have depth and we’re moving towards that space where we have seven guys that can all positively impact the game, and that’s a blessing for us. We’re happy that Jasiah is able to play now and get out on the court, and his teammates love having him out there as well.”

Williams helped fuel a 12-0 run to close out the quarter but the Celts started to gain some real momentum in the second. Celts starters got more involved in the second period, where the team started pulling away from the Cougars (9-6).

Rancho Cucamonga tied the score 19-19 early in the second before Crespi’s defense and some nice shooting put the team up by nine by halftime.

Crespi rolled through the third quarter, adding 28 points.

Celts junior Isaiah Barnes got going in the third quarter, where he added multiple fadeaway jumpers that helped him tally up 11 points.

Barnes also added six boards and as many assists for the Celts. Crespi forward Cayman Martin also had a big half and totaled 17 points and two steals in the win. Barnes’ twin brother, Carter, registered 13 points and two offensive rebounds.

Also providing a boost off the bench was sophomore Phoenix Smith, who added three steals, three rebounds and knocked down a pair of 3-pointers.

Junior Kavan Bowden led the Cougars with 20 points. JC Corneille also gave Crespi some issues and added 12 points, five rebounds and four assists for Rancho Cucamonga.

The win snaps Crespi’s two-game losing streak.

Fisher said he is still looking for good habits and positive minutes for his junior-heavy team.

“(We want) to continue to build habits and stay focused on the process,” Fisher said. “It’s really easy to go up and down based on win or loss. And we’ve won some games and didn’t play great and we’ve lost some games where we did some good things … Eventually, you’re going to have to play 30 great minutes of basketball to beat a team and we want to keep moving towards that.”

Crespi will return to its home court on Saturday to host the Windward Wildcats in a non-league game.

Fisher said he hopes the tough schedule continues to build his team up for the Mission League gauntlet in January.

“We’ve intentionally tried to create more adversity earlier in the season,” Fisher said, “I think our team is mentally and physically tougher … that’s all we can really bank on at the moment, and just hope that we continue to embrace hard things adversity, being able to win games at home and not be complacent that we’re at home, but then also learning to win on the road in other people’s gym when we have to. That’s the way we really got to move in that direction.”