La Habra boys basketball team, 17-2 overall, aiming to bring home a Freeway League championship

La Habra Coach Aaron Riekenberg guides the Highlanders Thursday night.

La Habra’s boys basketball team, 17-2 through the first two months of the season, hopes to continue rolling when Freeway League play resumes this week.

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The Highlanders (2-0 in league) have two games this week, playing at Troy Tuesday night (click here for a report of that game) and hosting Sonora on Friday. La Habra is ranked fifth in this week’s CIF 3AA poll.

Coach Aaron Riekenberg hopes that the good times keep rolling for the Highlanders, who captured a 60-31 nonleague victory over Orange Thursday night. La Habra finished second last year in the Freeway League to Troy and the Highlanders hope to make a run at the league title this season.

“That’s what we’ve been talking about all year,” said Riekenberg, in his second season as head coach. “It won’t be easy, though. Troy is so good, Sonora is playing great ball and Sunny Hills is really tough, so it’s going to be a grind.”

La Habra has had some big wins this year and captured the Orange Holiday Classic last month.

“I’m incredibly proud,” Riekenberg said. “They have worked really hard and we’ve played a pretty tough schedule. We had the Sunny Hills Tournament where we lost to Orange Lutheran in the championship game.

“We had the North Orange County Tournament where we had a real controversial loss to JSerra where we were up the whole game and hung out with a Trinity League team and if a couple things go different we feel we’re in the championship playing Mayfair, but (the team had) a third place finish. And then, just won this tournament (at Orange).”

Senior guard Cameron Dashiell, the MVP of the Orange Tournament and 6-8 senior Sam Howlin lead the way.

“With the defense we run, you have the big man protecting the rim and he’s been so important,” Riekenberg said. “And then you have Dashiell, who is the head of the snake and he just brings so much energy. He harasses guards all over the court and he’s able to do that because he has the big behind him to protect the rim.”

Howlin, who was all-tournament at the Orange Classic, has also had a number of big games and clutch performances.

“Sam has come a long way,” Riekenberg said. “He’s an exceptional shot blocker, but that’s not all he does. He does a good job balling up and he and plays sound defense. He doesn’t always look for the stat or the block. They both work well together.”

A number of other Highlanders have stepped up, including senior Christian Salazar who had five 3-pointers in the tournament championship game; senior guard Ja’len Overstreet, who had 24 points in the semifinals; and senior Luke Liebrich-Ashford, who had five 3-pointers against Sunny Hills.

“We have a lot of guys who just work hard and play defense and push us hard day to day in practice,” Riekenberg said. “And if their name is called and they get some open looks, they’re going to make you pay. It’s not about one guy, they’ve all bought into that. We’ve had different guys step up and it’s really cool to watch.”

Howlin said the Highlanders focus on playing together.

“Teamwork, honestly, getting the ball around because we have a lot of good scorers on our team and working the ball around helps us manage how we’re going to play,” said Howlin, who is committed to play at William Jessup University.

“I thank the Lord for giving us the ability to play hard and play together as a team,” Dashiell added. “We’ve been able to lock teams down, so defensively, that’s what’s keeping us in the games. Defense wins championships. Coach R (Riekenberg) preaches that every day in practice and when we lock in and focus, we can lock anybody down.”

Dashiell said he and his teammates have high hopes for the rest of the season.

“We want to fly through league and go 10-0, win league and CIF and state,” he said. “We should have no problem with that if we stay together.”

LA HABRA TOPS ORANGE 60-31 IN NON-LEAGUE GAME

-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com

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