The elite national schedule continued for the Sierra Canyon boys basketball team in a nonleague showdown Friday against Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.) at Mater Dei High.
After knocking off several powerhouses earlier in the season, Sierra Canyon came up just short in a 64-60 setback against the Warriors.
Devearl Ramsey scored 21 points, Cody Riley scored 18 points and pulled down 15 rebounds, and Remy Martin scored 11 points to lead Sierra Canyon (18-3).
“We played like we knew we could,” Riley said. “We just missed a some free throws and a few little things.”
After trailing by eight points midway through the fourth quarter, Sierra Canyon closed within one point at 60-59 with 37 seconds remaining.
Adam Seiko (nine points) made a 3-pointer with 1:21 remaining to cut the deficit to 60-56, and later made another 3-pointer.
However, Terrance Phillips and Joe Hampton each made two free throws in the final seconds and Oak Hill (33-1) escaped.
Dwayne Bacon scored 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead the Warriors, USA Today’s No. 1-ranked team.
Hampton scored 14 points and Terrance Phillips added 10 points and five assists for Oak Hill.
Sierra Canyon hurt itself by going 17 of 27 from the free-throw line.
Ramsey also played in severe pain with two impacted wisdom teeth.
“I wasn’t going to miss this game for anything in the world,” Ramsey said. “I was in a lot of pain, but was able to manage fine.”
Oak Hill turned around an early 10-7 deficit with an 8-0 run to close the first quarter.
The Warriors led 33-28 at halftime before Sierra Canyon used a 7-0 run to start the second half and take a short-lived 34-33 lead.
Ramsey made three free throws with four minutes remaining to trim the lead to 53-50.
Oak Hill, which has only lost to Hamilton (Ohio) on the court, responded with a 7-0 run.
“We knew we could get a bucket whenever we wanted,” Bacon said. “But that was a tough team. They kept coming at us the whole game. This is our biggest weekend coming out here to Cali. That was one of the best teams we have faced all year. They were better than St. John Bosco. Them and Chino Hills would be a dog fight.”
Oak Hill started an all-senior lineup, with each of the five players committed to Division I universities.
Bacon is headed to Florida State, Hampton to Penn State, Phillips to Missouri, 6-foot-10 Daniel Giddens to Ohio State and Andrew Fleming to Iowa.
Giddens scored seven points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and Fleming scored seven points for the Warriors.
Martin scored 11 of his 13 points in the second quarter for Sierra Canyon, which starts the Gold Coast League playoff seeding games tournament at 7 p.m. tonight against McAuliffe.
“That’s the best team in the country,” Sierra Canyon coach Ty Nichols said. “They are so long and athletic. Those are serious basketball players. It was a high-level basketball game. They were great on the offensive rebounds and we missed a lot of free throws.”
