Rialto boys basketball team outlasts Rowland to reach Division 7 title game
Amari Gary scored 19 points to help the Knights advance to the section finals for the first time in program history.
Black News 
RIALTO — A dominant fourth quarter more than made up for a lackluster middle two quarters for the Rialto boys basketball team Friday night.
The Knights outscored Rowland by 10 points in the fourth quarter en route to a 52-44 victory in a CIF Southern Section Division 7 semifinal.
Rialto (16-14) advances to play Salesian for the title Feb. 27 or 28 at a site and time to be determined. Rowland (17-14) will continue its season in the state playoffs that begin March 3.
“In the locker room, I told them, ‘every team is going to make a run,’” Rialto coach Dante Rouzan said. “We made our run in the first quarter, they made theirs in the second quarter. … I said we have to win each quarter after that. They stayed locked in, they stayed together, and pulled through.
“We slowed down our offense and made sure we got the right shot.”
The game was a rematch of a Division 4AA first-round game last year, won by host Rowland, 59-42. The victory gave the Knights their first CIF championship game appearance in school history.
“I knew this (team could make CIF finals) from day one,” Rialto senior guard Amari Gary said. “We had the team, we weren’t clicking at first. We started clicking at the end and that’s what we wanted.”
Gary, who scored 12 of his 19 points in the first half, made 4 of 6 free throws in the fourth quarter to help seal the victory.
The Knights trailed 34-32 after the third quarter, then took the lead for good on a 3-pointer by Joey Puyol with 6:22 to play that made it 37-34. It was part of a 10-2 run to start the quarter that didn’t seal the game but put the Raiders in desperation mode. Puyol scored all seven of his points in the fourth quarter.
“We had mishaps defensively,” Rowland coach Jason Villanueva said of the fourth quarter. “We left guys open, we had some slow rotations and that led to us giving up some easy looks at the rim.”
Rowland, which was playing in its third CIF semifinal in program history and was seeking its first CIF championship game appearance since 1976, also struggled from the field in the fourth quarter, making just 4 of 14 shots.
Rialto finished strong but also started strong, and the Knights looked like they might turn the game into a rout early.
Rialto led 11-3 less than four minutes into the game and 21-10 less than 30 seconds into the second quarter on a 3-pointer by Gary.
But the Raiders settled down after that, ending the half on a 14-2 run to take a halftime lead despite 14 first-half turnovers. They led by as many as three points in the third quarter before Rialto rallied in the fourth.
“Twenty-five years ago, we were in the semifinals,” Rouzan said. “They made history. They’re going to be talking about them 25 years from now.”
Wayne Johnson and Lio Madrid also scored eight points apiece for Rialto. Ian Minarto led Rowland with 19 points and Mikael De Leon had 10 points and eight rebounds for the Raiders.
