HACIENDA HEIGHTS >> CJ Bellamy knows that his cousin and teammate, Jazz Gardner, who is a 7-foot center on the Los Altos boys basketball team, will be heavily guarded every game.
Bellamy stepped up and led the team Saturday night with 20 points and six assists as the Conquerors defeated Edison 57-41 in the CIF Southern California Division II regional semifinals at Los Altos High School.
Los Altos (26-6) will be at Foothill on Tuesday, March 8, for the regional final.
“He’s a player,” Los Altos coach Jeff Lucas said of Bellamy. “He’s been doing that for most of the year for us. He’s a scorer and he passes the ball when he needs to as well. He’s a smart guy, but he’s a real determined guy as well.”
Los Altos’ CJ Bellamy after scoring a game high 20 points in their regional semifinal win over Edison pic.twitter.com/VB49RTQvjn
— Fred J. Robledo
(@SGVNSports) March 6, 2022
Edison (28-6) stayed with the Conquerors in the first half thanks to Dylan Hughes’ nine points, eight of them in the first quarter.
The Chargers trailed by three at halftime.
Edison’s offense had a hard time in the second half due to Los Altos’ strong press defense, and the situation got worse for the Chargers when center Trey Wilborn, who led them with 15 points, left for the majority of the third quarter because of a bloody nose.
Tyler Hampton scored nine points to go with his nine rebounds for Edison.
“I thought we competed really hard,” Edison coach Rich Boyce said. “We just didn’t shoot the ball really well. Normally we are a really good shooting team, but we didn’t shoot it well and that is really hard to do when you can’t go inside. We like to go inside with Trey and Tyler, but we couldn’t do that tonight because of their size advantage.
“We got a lot of good, open looks from the outside and a lot of good looking shots from guys that wanted to take advantage, but they just didn’t fall. If we made one or two more shots, this would have been a different ballgame. I’m proud of them. We played hard and did everything we could to compete hard.”
Edison managed to contain Gardner (17 points, 9 rebounds) in the second half, holding him to four points in the final two quarters.
With Gardner and the inside game being the focus for Edison, Bellamy stepped in to lead the way from the outside.
“It’s very important,” Bellamy said of Los Altos’ offense. “That’s our team. We play inside-out for the most part. We like to get the ball to our big. Jazz creates a lot of attention and opens up the floor for me a lot. It’s very important to have an inside-out game.”
Jordan Morales had 10 points and five rebounds for Los Altos while John Corina added five points and seven rebounds.
Los Altos will now prepare for their rematch with Foothill. They lost to the Knights on 67-57 at the MLK Dream Classic in January.
Happy Birthday Big! Good thing we got the win!
— Jelani Gardner (@JAG32basketball) March 6, 2022
“We have to watch a lot of film,” said Gardner, who was surprised with a car after the game, from his father, for his 18th birthday. “Make sure we study their ins and outs. We already played them earlier in the year. We are going to watch the film and study the hell out of it and get the win.”
Postgame interview with Jazz Gardner of Los Altos. 15 points and 9 rebounds for Gardner as Los Altos heads to the CIF SoCal Regional Finals at Foothill. Good thing he got a Mercedes Benz for his b-day tonite!@ocvarsity @SGVNSports @LosAltosHoop @LAConqAthletics @James_Escarcega pic.twitter.com/m96e8OEC25
— Manny Alvarez
Los Altos coach Jeff Lucas on how well his team is playing after advancing to the CIF State Division II regional finals. LA will be at Foothill on Tuesday with a chance to punch its ticket to the state championship. pic.twitter.com/h3lrVdQDb1
— Fred J. Robledo
Los Altos’ Jazz Gardner with 17 points talks about being a game away from the Division II state championship after a 57-41 win over Edison in the regional semifinals pic.twitter.com/lU6B9I8bMc
— Fred J. Robledo
Jazz Gardner birthday gift following Los Altos victory!@ocvarsity @SGVNSports @LosAltosHoop @LAConqAthletics @James_Escarcega pic.twitter.com/6zFkfm4l6z
— Manny Alvarez
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