605 LEAGUE BOYS BASKETBALL: Artesia, sans pair of starters, falls to Whitney for first time ever

January 14, 2026 

By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff

The defending 605 League champions are finding a tough time trying to repeat and following a historic loss to Whitney High this past Tuesday, Artesia High is falling deeper in the standings. For the first time in 14 meetings, all coming since the 605 league was formed, Whitney defeated Artesia 59-50, and for the first time since 2016, the Pioneers are 0-3 to begin a league season.

Adding fuel to the fire, the Pioneers were without senior Jordan Heredia, the team’s second leading scorer, and sophomore Aiden Atkins, the team’s fourth leading scorer who was feeling sick. Still, the Pioneers (7-11, 0-3) put up a valiant effort in the second half after trailing by as many as 15 points late in the first half.

“I would say [not having] Jordan, who is our second leading scorer, hurt,” said Artesia head coach Jeff Myles. “We had struggles with the ball at times, but he didn’t play for reasons. We just didn’t play well tonight; hats off to Whitney. They made eight three’s, and we made one; that’s a plus 21 points and that’s the ballgame right there.”

The Pioneers never led in the game and Whitney junior Jack Diancin set the tone with a pair of three-pointers in the last half of the opening quarter, the first coming with 3:53 remaining in the stanza and kicked off a 12-2 run. The Wildcats wouldn’t score for over four minutes however Artesia couldn’t take advantage and it haunted the red and black because the hosts went on their second big run of the night.

With 5:18 remaining in the half, junior Jezreel Dela Cruz started an 11-4 run to put the Wildcats up 29-14. That run featured downtown shots from senior William Kang, sophomore Ved Ghandi and Diancin, all in succession.

As poor as the Pioneers shot in the first half (six of 19), the second half would be much to their liking, and it began with 6:02 left in the third quarter. Sophomore Andrew Quarles began a stretch of 15 straight points to bring the red and black to within a point at 34-33. Quarles scored a third of those points and senior Christian Stewart added a pair of baskets during that time.

Whitney was up 36-33 after Dela Cruz ended that scoring spree, but a basket from Stewart and a free throw from Quarles enabled Artesia to tie the game with 27.8 seconds left in the quarter. It would be no more than a two-possession game for most of the fourth quarter before six straight points in a 20-second span made it a 48-48 affair after a basket from sophomore Kelly Okeke.

But senior William Kang gave the ‘Cats the lead for good with 3:11 left to play, then added a three-pointer 32 seconds later. Artesia sophomore Kobe Young would make it a one-possession game with 1:48 remaining, but the Pioneers would attempt three shots after that, all unsuccessful.

“It takes so much effort to come back when you’re down,” said Myles. “We never had that extra umph to kind of get over the hump. But we battled back. We’ve been winning league for a while; we’ve been good for a while and like I told the seniors [after the game], they just got caught in a bad year where we had 11 guys graduate, eight guys who played and I lost five coaches. So, this is pretty much a transition year. We’re working, we’ll be back and we’ll be better next year.”

Artesia was one of seven from beyond the arc in the first half, did not attempt a long range shot in the third quarter and missed on its four attempts from downtown in the fourth quarter. In contrast, Whitney (8-13, 2-1) was eight of 17 on three-pointers.

“Jordan is probably our best three-point shooter, and he didn’t play today, so that kind of hurt us,” said Myles. “But guys have to make shots. We shoot everyday in practice; they shoot on their own, so when the time comes to make shots…tonight they didn’t make shots.

“Again, we’re a young team and none of these guys really have varsity experience,” he continued. “Even the guys who came back didn’t play heavy varsity minutes [last season]. It’s a young team, but we’re taking our lumps this year to kind of get better for the future.”

The 59 points scored by Whitney was the most ever in the 15 games against the Pioneers, The previous high was 42, which came last season. In fact, in the two games played last season, the combined winning margin by Artesia was eight points.

Dela Cruz, who missed all eight shots he took against Cerritos High last Friday and was limited to a fourth quarter free throw, bounced back to lead all scorers with 21 points, nearly half of them in the fourth quarter, while Kang added 17 points and Diancin another 10 points. Stewart paced the Pioneers with 18 points12 rebounds, two blocks and an assist while Okeke came off the bench to add 14 points.

Artesia visits John Glenn High on Friday and will step out of league action to face Paramount High on Saturday and Huntington Park High on Monday before travelling to Pioneer High on Wednesday.