CIF Saturday Boys BB State Finals

Brayden Burries is on the prowl for some of the 44 points he scored during the 2025 CIF Open Division state title game win by Roosevelt of Eastvale. Photo: Sam Stringer.

Behind a performance for the ages from senior Brayden Burries, Roosevelt of Eastvale wins its first CIF Open Division state title on Saturday night in Sacramento over Archbishop Riordan of San Francisco. It’s also the third for the Inland Empire in the last six years and keeps Northern California winless in the Open Division since 2015. Other boys winners on the day were Jesuit of Carmichael (D2) and Priory of Portola Valley (D4).

Note: We hope you enjoy this free post on CalHiSports.com. Next week’s final state rankings in all divisions boys and girls, expanded overall final rankings and some of our exclusive upcoming all-state teams (including juniors, sophomores and frosh) will be for Gold Club members only. Sign up today for our Gold Club for $4.99 per month or as low as $2.08 per month for a yearly subscription. For details, CLICK HERE.

Note: Our lead boys basketball analyst, Ronnie Flores, did the breakdowns for Open boys & D4 boys. Editor and publisher Mark Tennis did D2 boys.

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The intrigue was there and the CIF Open Division boys state championship at the Golden One Center on Saturday featured a terrific All-American from Southern California and a deep team from Northern California that had only lost one game coming in. The crowd anticipated a great game, but what they got was as great individual performance from Roosevelt of Eastvale’s Brayden Burries, a powerfully built 6-foot-5 guard who had played like a man on a mission throughout the post-season. His 44-point, 12-rebound, three-block, two-steal performance not only led his team to a 80-60 victory over Archbishop Riordan of San Francisco, it was arguably the best individual performance for a winning team in nearly 50 years of the modern CIF state boys basketball championships.

What Burries accomplished individually put a stamp on a season in which the Roosevelt team, representing a large school in the sprawling Inland Empire, met all its goals. It started off by winning the Tarkanian Classic Tournament before the Christmas holiday, then The Classic at Damien after the holiday, capturing its Big VIII League title, winning the coveted CIF Southern Section Open Division title and the ultimate team prize: the CIF Open State Championship.

Head coach Steve Singleton of Eastvale Roosevelt obviously loves three-pointers, but the three fingers he’s holding up here represent the total number of CIF state titles that he’s earned (so far) in his coaching career. Photo: Mark Tennis.

“What a special night,” said head coach Steve Singleton after the game, who has now won three CIF state titles as a coach (one at Dominguez of Compton and now two at Roosevelt). “These young men worked so hard to get to this point, but to get here was not our goal. It was to win it. We were led by a very special player who put us on his back and said, ‘Let’s go.'”

Roosevelt started out as the preseason No. 1 team in the state by Cal-Hi Sports, and only dropped from that perch because of the common opponent factor with preseason No. 3 Harvard-Westlake of Studio City, the team that won two consecutive CIF open titles in 2023 and 2024 and left the Mustangs snake-bit by defeating them last year in both the CIFSS open and CIF SoCal Open Regional finals. That left them extremely-motivated for this run, but after Harvard-Westlake defeated Gonzaga of Washington, D.C., and the Mustangs lost to that same club, the switch was made. After Harvard-Westlake took a loss to current state No. 2 Notre Dame during CIFSS open pool play, Roosevelt moved back to the No. 1 spot. The 20-point win over Riordan represents the finishing touches on a perfect 35-game slate vs. CIF foes for Roosevelt. Its other loss was to Brennan (San Antonio, Texas) in Dallas on Thanksgiving weekend when ace defender and shooter Issac Williamson ran into a baseline cameraman and was unable to finish the contest.

As far as Burries’ performance goes before approximately 6,000 fans on Saturday evening, he broke the CIF Open Division state scoring record of All-American Jordan Brown from Woodcreek of Roseville, who had 35 points in a 2017 loss to open state champ Bishop Montgomery of Torrance. His 44 points (on 15-of-22 shooting) also is the second most any individual player has scored in any CIF state title game, tying him with Alijah Arenas of Chatsworth last year in a loss in D4. The most scored ever by any individual came by yet another All-American: 1989 Mr. Basketball pick Tracy Murray of Glendora. He netted 64 points for the Tartans in the 1989 D2 state title game 89-83 loss to Menlo-Atherton.

“I’d say just from beginning, with the vibes and energy, I felt like after I got on the court I thought ‘It’s over for the them,” said Burries, who amazingly is still uncommitted for college. “It was a big night for me and the team.”

He added after being told about all of the records he set: “I’ll think about it now, yeah, now that games are over. It just feels like a blessing.”

Right away, it was evident Burries would be a difference maker in this year’s CIF open final. At halftime with Roosevelt leading 44-33, Burries was up to 27 points on 10-of-13 from the field, including 3-of-5 from the three-point line, with four free throws. As a team, Roosevelt (35-2) made 13-of-13 free throws before intermission, but all those shots from the stripe came in the first quarter. Riordan (29-2) didn’t shoot a free throw in the first quarter and trailed 23-19 after eight minutes.

Jasir Rencher led Archbishop Riordan with 22 points in an effort that showed a lot of determination. Photo: Sam Stringer / Cal-Hi Sports.

“He got going early, got to the line early, got into rhythm and got good looks on threes,” said Archbishop Riordan head coach Joey Curtin. “Once he did that, he made shots in transition. That’s how you get 44 pts on 22 hots. Hats off to Burrries, just phenomenal.”

The Crusaders, who only lost to CIFSS open participant JSerra of Orange County coming in, got quality performances from many individuals but just couldn’t slow down Burries or a talented supporting cast (that improved throughout the season) enough in order to close their deficit to make the crowd believe Riordan had a chance to make an upset bid a possibility in the closing minutes. When Burries made an up-and-under move in the third quarter he was up to 34 points and the score was 55-37, before Texas A & M bound Jasir Rencher, Riordan’s leading player, answered with a field goal with 3:33 to go in the quarter. With three minutes to go in the third period, Rencher made it interesting when he nailed a wing three-pointer to make it 58-42, but the Crusaders needed others to step up as junior Jackson Haggins did on the next possession when he answered with a three-pointer of his own.

“When we watched them on film, we knew they like to get in transition. and we like to get in transition,” Singleton said. “We knew they wouldn’t be able to stay with us doing that.”

Haggins scored 12 points, including two three-pointers, and finished 6-of-6 from the free throw line. Myles Walker, the team’s field general, also hit double digits with timely buckets and two three-pointers. Walker also made 5-of-5 free throws to finish with 15 points. Nobody else but Haggins, Walker and Burries shot free throws for the Mustangs and Burries’ two misses (the team went 21-of-23) represented about the only thing he did wrong in a historic Saturday night performance.

Riordan made 18-of-25 free throws, but an early rebounding advantage by the larger Crusaders was largely negated at the end, as Roosevelt used quickness to the ball and a nose for it off the glass, just as it had all season long against bigger opponents. Riordan held a 29-27 advantage. Roosevelt’s advantage of quickly pushing it or getting into transition off the glass was clearly visible in the big arena court setting.

Roosevelt’s lead got up to 20 points at 66-46, then to 69-49 when with 3:55 remaining in the game Rencher got fouled on a three-pointer and the lead never got bigger. Rencher scored a team-high 22 points. He made 4-of-9 on three-pointers and 6-of-7 free throws, but had to work extra hard on the defensive end (two steals) and could never lead his team on a second half run. Junior Andrew Hilman, who started off defensively on Burries, was the only other double-digit scorer for Riordan with 11 points, while adding seven rebounds. Center Nes Emeneke added nine for Riordan, the CIF Central Coast Section Open champions.

“This team is still a historic team,” Curtin said. “I thought we battled, kept staying in there. This team has been a coach’s dream. They love each other and were very confident coming in here.”

The final points of Brayden Burries’ high school career at Roosevelt of Eastvale came on this dunk toward the end of the game. Photo: Sam Stringer.

All the numbers Burries put up led to dizzying thoughts of the greatest performances all-time in a CIF state title game. What quickly comes to mind when comparing Burries’ performance to others for a winning team came courtesy of arguably the best players the South and the North has produced since the advent of the CIF State Tournament in 1980.

In 1983 as a junior, John Williams led L.A Crenshaw to a 62-55 overtime victory over Bishop O’Dowd and the Cougars needed every one of his 29 points, 13 rebounds and five block shots to pull out the win. He would later lead LSU to a Final Four in college.

Nine years later in 1992, Jason Kidd, the North’s best player and clearly the greatest point guard the state has ever seen, had probably an even more impressive performance than Williams considering many people in the South thought Mater Dei of Santa Ana could give St. Joseph of Alameda all it can handle and then some in that year’s D1 final. A crowd of 15,788 fans packed the old ARCO Arena and a live TV audience throughout the state saw Kidd put on an absolute show. His numbers were 28 points nine rebounds and three assists, but it was the fashion in which he did it that was so impressive. At one point he had scored as many points as Mater Dei (26) and led his team to a 59-37 victory.

On that night, also in Sacramento at ARCO Arena, Kidd scored his final field goal on a two-handed breakaway dunk. On this special night for Roosevelt and its fans, Burries’ final bucket of his open division record 44 points, and the final of his career, ironically also was a dunk. It also has to mentioned that future NBA Hall of Famer Klay Thompson sizzled for 37 points in a win by Santa Margarita in the 2008 D3 state final.

It was a type of performance worthy enough to be compared to any of the best we’ve seen in the nearly 50 years of modern CIF state competition.

Chatsworth’s Alijah Arenas had 22 points, but Jesuit of Carmichael was the team that got the win during CIF D2 final. Photo: Sam Stringer.

D2 Boys
Jesuit (Carmichael) 66, Chatsworth 53

Coming into this game, as the longtime record-keepers for California basketball, the number we were looking for was 3,000 as in the number of career points that Chatsworth’s Alijah Arenas could get in the final game of his career.

Arenas only needed 20 points to get there and finished with 22, but in the long time that he took to unstuck himself at 19 late in the third quarter and long into the fourth, Jesuit took control and hung on to gain the school’s first-ever CIF state title.

Amaury McKinney jumps for joy immediately after Jesuit of Carmichael had secured CIF D2 state title. Photo: Mark Tennis.

The Marauders, who benefitted in the D2 playoffs by being in the same league as Folsom (Open Division) & Rocklin (the D2 North top seed that was upset in the regional playoffs), had lost in back-to-back D1 state finals in 1993 and 1994 in the top D1 bracket to Crenshaw of Los Angeles. The Marauders have had contending teams in the past that got close, and their 2021 team was special at 16-0 but couldn’t go to any playoffs due to COVID.

“I am super proud of this team, from day one they have been doing everything the right away,” said Jesuit head coach Tim Kelly, who was the Cal-Hi Sports D2 State Coach of the Year for that 2021 season. “The sum of our parts is better than the individuals. We have taken some tough losses, and had our hearts ripped out in the final minutes of the championship game. If you take the lessons the right way, you can do something very special. We shot the ball pretty well, and thought defensively, we slowed it down. Slowing it down has been our strength all season.”

Arenas capped his career at 3,002 points. According to the Cal-Hi Sports state records, he became the 14th player in state history to go past 3,000, and he did that despite reclassing from a junior to a senior this season. His 3,000 points therefore came in three seasons, not four. Alijah also was playing on the same floor at the Golden 1 Center where he scored 44 points in the CIF D4 state final last season. That’s the second-most points ever scored in a state final, but also came in a loss (in that case to Monterey).

The key for Jesuit’s win was the play of its players who usually are in more supportive roles to leading scorer Asher Schroeder and the Marauders shot really well. Freshman Maison Phillips was one of those who stepped up as he scored a team-high 19 points. As for the shooting, the Marauders went 8-of-20 from the three-point line and they were 14-of-16 on free throws. Chatsworth struggled at 5-of-19 on three-pointers and 8-of-15 on free throws. The team’s big center, Taj Unuakhalu (who actually played in a volleyball game earlier this week), backed up Arenas with nine points and 10 rebounds, but no one on the team was in double figures.

Shroeder was one of three others in double figures for Jesuit. He had 12 points. Senior Luke Browne had 12 and senior Amaury McKinney had 13 points.

Chatsworth started out hot and took an early 7-2 lead. The teams were tied 15-15 later in the second quarter and Jesuit had taken a 29-25 lead at halftime. The teams were tied again at 34-34 in the third quarter, but then Jesuit went on a 7-0 run that helped get a 43-40 lead entering the fourth quarter. Browne then hit a three for the Marauders to start the final period and Schroeder then scored a bucket for an eight-point lead. Jesuit took complete control with an 8-2 run and Arenas didn’t get his 3,000th point until making a free throw with 39 seconds left in the game. That came after being fouled on a three-pointer and his final two points also were on three throws.

“I think we took it as a challenge for this game was to stop him,” Schroeder said. “We did it, but it was just the challenge for the game.”

Chatsworth coach Sam Harris was visibly shaken up by the loss and at a loss for words during the post-game press conference.

“We were happy to be here, but this is tough, this is a special group right here,” he said “Going up to Division 2…tough. We couldn’t knock down enough shots, just tough. We played top teams or top talent before, they just got us this time. We just weren’t aggressive enough against their unorthodox zone defense.”

Arenas, who will play next at USC, agreed.

“For us it was kind of surprising, we should have played harder, moral of the story was effort,” he said. “We’ve seen them before. We should have stuck together longer. We should have stayed in our intensity, keeping that up, and the next guy seeing it.”

Teddy Xanthopoulos and Jai Gerrodette were two of the top players all season for CIF D4 state champion Priory of Portola Valley. Photo: Mark Tennis / Cal-Hi Sports.

D4 Boys

Priory (Portola Valley) 83,
Fresno Christian 66

In the recent seasons of the competitive equity era, there has been plenty of matchups in the lower divisions where both teams were making their first CIF state appearance. This matchup was the same, as history was going to be made regardless of the outcome. Both teams came out loose and ready to play offensive basketball.

Both teams went back and forth offensively, with Aden Millwee draining a corner 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer to give Fresno Christian a 38-37 lead. The Eagles’ biggest lead in the first half was six points early in the second period, while Priory’s was three points a few minutes later. Priory stayed in the game early by forcing turnovers, but when its outside shots starting falling with regularity early in the third quarter, it was all Panthers from that point as they rolled to the program’s first ever CIF state title in boys hoops.

Priory, which defeated Palma of Salinas to win the CIF Central Coast Section D5 crown, also became the second consecutive CCS program to win in this division. In 2024, Monterey defeated Chatsworth, the team that played for the D2 state crown later on Saturday afternoon.

Mate Palotai’s rebounding, inside play and some three-point shooting helped Priory all season long. Photo: Mark Tennis.

Millwee, the 6-foot-1 senior southpaw, hit another 3-pointer early in the third period and it looked like Fresno Christian (30-7) was going to keep it a back and fourth game. In fact, Fresno Christian made eight consecutive shots before the Eagles’ nest caved in. That’s when Priory (26-6) went on its offensive binge that essentially clinched the state title. Mate Palatai, a 6-foot-8 junior, nailed a 3-pointer to give Priory a 49-48 lead, and then the Panthers hit another to make it 52-48. Priory’s Kasten Eggers made a 3-pointer to make it 59-50 and by that moment the Panthers knew they were feeling it. At one point in the third period, it was a 18-2 Priory run in an elapsed four and a half minutes and Fresno Christian had eight turnovers in that time period.

Junior Jai Gerrodette made the run 22-2 to close the third period (in five and a half minutes) on an offensive rebound put back right before the quarter buzzer. That made the score 64-50 entering the fourth period and the Panthers had all the momentum from there. Fresno Christian’s Devin Gaines scored the first basket of the fourth period, but Priory hit another three on its next possession to stretch the lead to 66-52 and it was well on its way to a historic state crown.

Gaines scored a game-high 21 points on 9-of-13 shooting. Noah Coulton added 18 points for a team that won the CIF Central Section D4 title and was placed south for the regionals.

Priory made 10-of-23 shots from 3-point range, while Fresno Christian made 6-of-17. Fresno Christian had a 23-13 rebound advantage in the first half, but the final tally was 33-32 in favor of the Panthers.

When reserve Jojo Tejuco made a 3-pointer to give Priory a 20-point lead in the closing minute, it was evident it was just that type of afternoon for the boys from the South Bay. In fact, it was Tejuco’s first made 3-pointer of the season.

“Turnovers to be frank about it, I don’t think we ever gave up 24 and 27 points in any quarter this year, so it was a shock to us for them to score that back-to-back quarters,” Fresno Christian coach Jon Penberthy said about what made the difference. “It was a massive group effort to get here and I’m proud of these guys. There is tons of pride and most of these guys have been together for three years.”

“We’ve had tremendous support on our nine-game winning streak (to close the season),” said Priory head coach David Moseley. “With 33 points off turnovers, it sounds like we saved our best for last defensively.”

“We picked up our intensity a lot in the third quarter, our pace and our speed, too” said sophomore Teddy Xanthopoulos, who was one of six double-digit scorers for Priory with 15 points. “Our press was working and by our run we were just confident and rolling.”

Palotai and senior Balazs Nyckerhoff led Priory with 16 points apiece. Gerrodette, a 5-foot-8 junior, added 13 points and hit a team-high three 3-pointers, while junior Noah Gallon and Eggers add 10 points apiece.

Ronnie Flores is the managing editor of CalHiSports.com. He can
be reached at ronlocc1977@gmail.com.
Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @RonMFlores