Defense Leads Redlands Adventist Academy Boys To CIF Basketball Title

The smile said it all.

With a first-ever CIF-Southern Section championship becoming more and more of a reality for Redlands Adventist Academy, senior guard Matthew Dupper hit his first 3-pointer during a key stretch in the fourth quarter, prompting a smile that would make a mother proud.

It was the smile of a champion.

The third-seeded Bulldogs made school history Friday, capturing the Division 6A title with a 61-42 victory over fifth-seeded Arshag Dickranian Armenian at Mater Dei High School.

"I couldn't be any happier. I'm so proud of my team," said sophomore forward Tino Mkorombindo, who scored 15 points with a team-high 12 rebounds and two blocked shots. "We've been through our ups and our downs. But we were determined (today). I'm so happy to make our school and our alums proud of what we did."

The Bulldogs (21-7) did it with defense. After playing an up-and-down first half, the Bulldogs buckled down and got to work in the second half, scrambling for loose balls all over the court, tipping careless Lions' passes for steals and shutting down Arshag Dickranian's 6-foot-6 junior center Jack Karapetyan.

Karapetyan, who finished with 20 points, 15 rebounds and five blocked shots, single-handedly kept the Lions in the game in the first half with 20 of the team's 25 points. In the second half, Karapetyan was held without a single basket and only attempted five shots after shooting 8 for 13 in the first half.

"Defense is what carried us this whole season," said RAA sixth-year head coach Jason Hinkle, who’s Bulldogs forced 20 turnovers with 15 steals. "We wanted to make sure we forced (Karapetyan) into our help defense. We did a better job of that in the second half. I don't even think we fouled him (in the second half)."

The turning point came late in the second quarter according to Hinkle. Senior forward Stephen Lawson drew an offensive foul on the defensive end. Moments later, senior guard Mikael Anderson had a towering slam dunk over Steve Darakchyan to close out the quarter and give the Bulldogs a 29-25 halftime lead.

Anderson, who finished with a team-high 18 points with 10 rebounds and three steals, said he had his ‘ESPN moment’ all thought out.

"I knew as soon as I got the ball I was going for the dunk," he said. "I had to. I apologized after for it. But it's just something I had to do."

Hinkle sensed the momentum change from those two plays.

"Those two plays I thought were the turning point," he said. "You could see the frustration (on Arshag Dickranian). I knew the game was ours if we could just keep that up in the second half."

And that's what the Bulldogs did. They took 37-27 lead minutes into the third quarter, only for the Lions to cut the deficit to 40-36 by the end of the third. The fourth quarter was when the Bulldogs took charge for good. They opened with a 10-0 run, capped by Dupper's 3-pointer and a basket from Jordan Ward for a 50-36 advantage.

"I finally got the jitters out," noted Dupper of his first field goal of the game. "Everything just got real smooth for us."

The Lions (17-4) couldn't recover, never cutting the deficit to under double digits the rest of the way and finally succumbing to the more athletic Bulldogs.

 "That whole second half might have been some of our best basketball of the year," Hinkle said. "Our guys played on another level. You could see (Arshag Dickranian) getting tired. Not one of my guys was tired. They could have played another two quarters."

The Bulldogs outscored the Lions by a 21-6 margin in the final quarter, turning the game's final minutes into one big celebration.

"We just had to play our game in that second half," Anderson said. "Our motivation was that championship. I'm just tremendously blessed to have teammates like this. Everyone knew their role and brought something to the table."

Kamaal Thomas added 10 points and six rebounds for the Bulldogs, who may earn a berth into the CIF State Tournament when the teams are announced on Sunday.

Nevertheless, the Bulldogs could take pride in accomplishing something no other RAA team has done.

"It's just unbelievable," Hinkle said. "I don't think it will really hit me until we get back to school and when we finally put that banner up. This has been years in the making and is credited to all the good coaches and players we've had here. We needed five wins and we got each of them one at a time."

BOX SCORE

REDLANDS ADVENTIST ACADEMY (61)

Mikael Anderson 18, Tino Mkorombindo 15, Kamaal Thomas 10, Matthew Dupper 6, Quinton Hamilton 5, Chido Mutodo 4, Jordan Ward 3.

ARSHAG DICKRANIAN (42)

Jack Karapetyan 20, Artur Karapetyan 11, Khachik Haladijan 5, John Gukasyan 2, Alex Garibyan 2, David Ananyan 2.

Halftime: RAA 29-25.

3-pointers: RAA 4-18 (Dupper 2-7, Hamilton 1-2, Mkorombindo 1-1, Thomas 0-4, Anderson 0-4); AD 5-23 (J. Karapetyan 3-9, A. Karapetyan 1-10, Haladijan 1-3, Gukasyan 0-1).

Fouled out: None.

Technicals: None.