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CHATSWORTH — Master and his assortment of defenses versus the star pupil. Caia Elisaldez playing physical defense against star guard Juju Watkins. A couple of fans were ejected from the gym, and a second-half surge from the underdog.
None of those factors distracted the Sierra Canyon’s girls basketball team Saturday from its mission of defending its CIF State Open Division championship.
The USC-bound Watkins scored 26 points and added 12 rebounds and three blocks to lead the top-seeded Trailblazers past visiting No. 4 seed Mater Dei 59-47 in a physical Open Division semifinal game in the CIF Southern California Regional playoffs.
“We just always talk about whoever is in front of us is in our way for a championship,” said Sierra Canyon coach Alicia Komaki, whose team improved to 31-0. “It doesn’t matter the legacy of the team or if it is my former head coach.
“None of that stuff matters to us. We just want to win,” she added. “There’s stories for everybody else, which is great, but there’s no stories for us.”
Sierra Canyon’s play continues to be the real story. The Trailblazers, ranked No. 1 in the nation, will play host to Etiwanda in the Southern California Regional final Tuesday. Etiwanda, which fell to the Trailblazers last season in the regional final and last weekend in the CIF-SS Open Division final, beat host La Jolla Country Day 47-42 in the other semifinal Saturday.
The plot at Sierra Canyon on Saturday included Komaki facing Mater Dei coach Kevin Kiernan, who she played for at Troy and later assisted at Mater Dei.
“Alicia is like a daughter to me,” Kiernan, the state’s all-time leader in coaching victories, said earlier this week.
Komaki counted at least six different defenses that Kiernan threw at the Trailblazers. Sierra Canyon finished with its third-lowest output of the season but trailed only once at 3-2 and led 31-11 late in…
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