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Cerritos High sophomore Kaleb Duag scores on one of his two baskets in the first half against Artesia High last Friday in a 61-58 victory. Duag came off the bench to score seven points along with picking up a couple of steals. All photos by Makoa Bocalan.
By Loren Kopff
Sports Editor | Follow X
February 3, 2025
Another chapter was written in the longstanding boys basketball rivalry between Artesia High and Cerritos High last Friday night and Cerritos junior Noah Lai was a big part of it. Held without a point through the first three quarters and only four shots taken, Lai erupted for 13 points in the fourth quarter, including going nine for 10 from the free throw line as the Dons rallied for a 61-58 road victory.
Cerritos, once down by five points late in the first half, improved to 16-11 overall but more importantly, stayed tied with Pioneer High for first place in the 605 League with one game remaining in the regular season. Both teams are 8-1 in the circuit.
“Honestly, the energy was high, everyone came to play, and it was just the team that brought it,” said Lai.
“It always comes down to our defense,” said Cerritos head coach Jonathan Watanabe. “We’ve told our guys, you’ve got to defend, you’ve got to defend, you’ve got to defend. The second round [of league], our defense has gotten a little bit loose. We’ve had guys injured and I think our practices have not been intense because we’re trying to make sure that we don’t get injured in practice. Credit to [junior] Rocco [Chua], who turned his ankle in practice yesterday, but suited up today. He said, ‘I’m taping it up; I’m ready to go’. He came up big and knocked down a few big shots. But all our guys stepped up, and I thought…that’s what we have. We have a really good team.”
After scoring the first five points of the game, the Dons saw Artesia respond with seven straight points as an offensive putback from senior Christian Stewart gave Artesia the lead with 4:40 left in the stanza. Then in the second quarter, an 8-0 run by the Pioneers put the hosts up by five points with 2:04 left in the half.
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Cerritos High junior Noah Lai, the star for the Dons against Artesia High last Friday, goes up for a lay-up in the fourth quarter during the team’s 61-58 victory. It was one of two shots taken from the field as he scored 13 points, all in the quarter. Lai also had six rebounds and three steals.
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“It’s always a good rivalry, no matter whether it’s back in the Suburban League or this game right here,” said Artesia head coach Jeff Myles. “But congrats [to Cerritos]; they played well. We couldn’t make shots in the first quarter. We maybe missed seven wide open threes that we couldn’t make. It sucks for the guys who wanted to be in the playoffs. But it is what it is, unfortunately. The good thing is we have seven or eight underclassmen on the team, so the future looks bright.”
In fact, the first three quarters would see the game change hands 10 times and be tied nine times with neither team holding more than a two-possession advantage. Then in the fourth quarter, a three-pointer from senior Jordan Heredia with 5:39 left in the game gave the Pioneers their last lead of the game at 43-42. Just over a minute later, two free throws from Lai put Cerritos in front for good, which ignited a 12-0 run over the next 2:06. Lai, who had a career-high 23 points against Artesia on Jan. 14, also had six rebounds and three steals.
“I just trusted the training my coaches put me through,” said Lai. “It’s just second nature to me. Honestly, it was just the team spacing out the floor for me and I just got to my spots.”
“We need him; he’s one of our big time returners and one of our captains,” said Watanabe. “So, he had to step up and when the game’s on the line, you have to be ready for it and he’s ready. The floor opened up, especially with Rocco Chua shooting beautifully.”
Artesia began to chip away at its deficit, but Cerritos was up 61-51 with 22.6 seconds left when freshman Jaycob Gomez grabbed an offensive rebound and scored 12 seconds later. Then with 5.5 seconds left, senior Kobe Young sank a desperation three-pointer and was fouled, in which he made to make it a one-possession game.
However, the two components that plagued the Pioneers were the turnovers and the free throw shooting, in which they were 10 of 21 whereas the Dons missed four of their 19 free throws.
“We haven’t been turning the ball over lately,” said Myles. “I don’t know how many we had today; it seemed like we had 20. We had a couple of late turnovers in the end. I don’t know if the guys were tired. Maybe I should have subbed more, but it just came down to free throws in the end. You can’t be a good team when you miss 15 free throws or whatever it was.”
Heredia did all he could to keep Artesia in the game with a career-high 27 points while Stewart and Young each had nine points with the former adding 11 rebounds and the latter pitching in with half a dozen boards. Heredia has reached double digits in scoring in 20 games after just scoring a point in 14 games last season.
“He played great; he made some big shots and kind of kept us in the game,” said Myles. “I thought he took a couple of ill-advised shots, and we talked about that in the locker room. I think he had one where he could have had a lay-up but instead, he settled for a three. It [came] at a crucial part of the game; I think we were down by four or five at the time. But he’s been playing great for us lately, so hats off to him. He’s a great shooter, probably one of the best shooters in the league.”
“He’s amazing,” said Watanabe. “I talked to him after the game and he’s definitely going to be playing next year. I know he’s a senior this year, but he’ll be playing somewhere, and some college coach is going to be happy.”
Junior Devon Hardy and freshman Jace Ribac each scored a dozen points for the Dons while Chua added eight points, and junior Noah Edwards grabbed six rebounds. But the bench play continues to be solid as sophomore Kaleb Duag pitched in with seven points and junior Jeremiah Ju had seven rebounds and five points.
“I really think the injuries early were kind of a blessing in disguise,” said Watanabe. “Obviously, you don’t want to go through the injuries. But other guys got experience; they got minutes early that they may not have gotten at that time. At the beginning of the year, if we suited up 10 guys, it was a good day. Even though it was frustrating early, in the long run, those guys are way further along than they would have been had everyone been healthy. It’s just made our team better.”
Cerritos hosts Oxford Academy to end the regular season, while the Pioneers (10-17, 3-6) entertains last place John Glenn High at home.
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