SAN BERNARDINO — Brooklyn Ross saw the openings and attacked the basket with ferocity Friday night.
Ross carried the offense for the Aquinas boys basketball team for most of the evening, finishing with a game-high 32 points to go along with 11 rebounds as the Falcons knocked off Arrowhead Christian Academy 50-34 in an Ambassador League game.
Aquinas (12-9 overall, 3-0 in league) grabbed sole possession of first place in the league standings with Friday’s victory.
Ross, a 6-foot-7 junior who transferred from Cajon High, scored 20 of the 24 points Aquinas put on the board in the first half.
“That pinch spot (the elbow of the free-throw line), they really didn’t have a matchup for me,” said Ross, who finished the night 13 of 21 from the field. “They tried to go a bit taller, but I’m stronger and faster so that becomes a favorable match-up for me.”
Points came at a premium as neither side shot the ball well Friday evening. Aquinas was 19 for 59 from the field (32.2%) and that included a combined 18 for 30 from Ross and Vincent Warsaw. Arrowhead Christian made just 13 of its 47 shots (27.7%).
Aquinas finished with a 53-30 edge in the rebounding department, include a 14-5 advantage at the offensive end. The Falcons swiped the first 10 rebounds of the game and also took advantage of their additional opportunities (21 second-chance points).
“We tell our kids success is rarely linear. There are peaks and valleys,” Falcons coach Deryl Pegram said. “But in a game like this one, if you can defend and rebound, you can always be in a game with a chance to win. And we pride ourselves on that.”
Parker Distelberg scored 12 points, but was one of four Arrowhead Christian players who battled foul trouble from the outset.
“That really knocks the rhythm off when your key guys have to go to bench,” Eagles coach Lance Evbuomwan said about his team’s high foul count (18) Friday. “The foul trouble across the board made it much more difficult to try to mount a comeback.”
Ross scored 10 points during a 12-2 run that helped Aquinas take a 16-7 lead with 45 seconds remaining in the first quarter. And Ross scored all eight of the Falcons points in the second, as Aquinas took a 24-17 lead to the locker room at the break.
“He’s a very serious young man,” Pegram said of Ross. “We have a saying in our program: everything correlates. How you act in the classroom, how you act socially and at home translates into how you play. Brooklyn is a high academic kid, a tier-one honor roll kid, and that’s how he carries himself through an entire day. He’s a hard worker and it show out there on the court.”
ACA (11-9, 3-1) was still in the game as the second half started, but Aquinas used a 12-4 run to extend the lead to 15 points.
Ross added 10 more points in the third period, but he had some help as Warsaw scored 12 of 14 points in the second half.
“He’s the only senior guard we have, so we expect a lot from him,” Pegram said of Warsaw. “We need him to be that closer.”
Juliyahs Moreno finished with a game-high 13 rebounds for Aquinas, while Marion Simon had nine rebounds for the Falcons.
Garang Ngodi had nine points and eight rebounds for ACA, and Anthony Gerome also had eight rebounds for the Eagles.
“We have to lick our wounds and prepare for the next time we play them,” Evbuomwan said. “Overcoming adversity is a big part of this game. We have to fix some things up for sure. We obviously need to shoot better and get some more rebounds.”
Pegram said he expects another battle when the teams square off Feb. 2 in the regular-season finale at Arrowhead Christian.
“We still have to go to their house, so we’re not doing all that celebrating yet,” Pegram said. “They’re going to come after us.”
