SACRAMENTO — Call it the moment every coach dreads. Your star player goes down with an ankle injury less than four minutes into a championship game. Maxi Adams, the McDonald’s All-American from Sierra Canyon, needed help being escorted off the court at Golden 1 Center in the Open Division state final against Richmond Salesian.
He was taken to the locker room for evaluation, but the gingerly way he was moving left little doubt his night was done. He came back to the bench using crutches and his ankle wrapped.
So who was going to step forward to aid a heavily favored team that was suddenly reeling, falling behind by nine points early in the second quarter?
All season, coach Andre Chevalier deployed a nine-player deep roster of stars, and the depth showed up again as the shock of losing Adams began to dissipate. Steph Kankole made three three-pointers. JJ Sati-Greer delivered four free throws. Jordan Mize had a dunk. And fellow McDonald’s All-American, Brandon McCoy, made a three-point play, giving Sierra Canyon a one-point halftime lead.
“Win one for Maxi” became the mantra. The Trailblazers stepped on the pedal during a 15-0 run in the third quarter and came away with a 78-70 victory, earning their first Open Division title since the Cassius Stanley-Kenyon Martin Jr. team of 2019.
“Everyone knew we were talented coming into the year, but there were a lot of questions,” Chevalier said. “People thought we weren’t going to merge. They’ve been friends since childhood. When Maxi went down everyone locked in and said we were going to win for Maxi. We’ve hanged our hat, we played nine all year long.”
The Trailblazers opened a 19-point lead in the fourth quarter behind McCoy, who finished with 20 points while making eight of 10 shots. Martinsen scored 13 points, Kankole 12, Mize and Stati-Grier 11 each. Elias Obenyah led Salesian (29-4) with 27 points.
McCoy grew up in Northern California and appeared especially fired up to face several players he’s known for years. After the game was over, he took a basketball and delivered a dunk with teammates running from behind.
“It means the world to me. I’ve had this goal written on the wall since high school,” McCoy said.
Kankole was the big surprise, coming through with four threes off the bench in an NBA arena.
“Oh my gosh, we’ve been waiting for him to make shots,” Chevalier said.
Said Kankole: “I love playing in arenas. They’re fun.”
Sierra Canyon’s pressure defense helped produce 18 turnovers. “They keep coming in waves,” Salesian coach Bill Mellis said.
This was a season in which Sierra Canyon (30-1) was ranked No. 1 from start to finish. Few teams came close to beating the Trailblazers other than Mission League rival Harvard-Westlake, which lost to them three times. It was the final season for Harvard-Westlake’s Joe Sterling, who’s off to Texas as one of the best three-point shooters.
The season will be most remembered for the individual talent. Four players — McCoy, Adams, Christian Collins of St. John Bosco and Jason Crowe Jr. of Inglewood — were chosen as McDonald’s All-Americans. Crowe finished as the all-time scoring leader in state history with 4,718 points.
Players who were four-year standouts — Brayden Kyman and Kaiden Bailey — ended their careers at Santa Margarita with a Trinity League championshipT. hey’re moving on to Washington State and Georgia Tech, respectively. Damien junior guard Zaire Rasshan set a school single-season record with 151 threes and won a Division I title for veteran coach Mike LeDuc.
Palisades and Birmingham, loaded with starting lineups filled with underclassmen, took the first steps toward helping restore City Section credibility. They’re poised to be able to offer competition to Southern Section teams in 2027.
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