Top-seeded Ayala can’t stop Cajon’s Clarendon

Jasmine Clarendon was a 6-foot-1 people-mover who played center for Rialto Eisenhower several years ago and went on to be a power forward at Pepperdine.

Layshia Clarendon isn’t anything like her older sister. She is a 5-9 guard at San Bernardino Cajon who tends to go around people. Or over them.

Not that Layshia shies away from contact.

The junior had 25 points and four assists to lead Cajon to its first Southern Section championship Saturday at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach with a 51-47 victory over top-seeded Chino Hills Ayala in the Division II-A final. It was the first title game for Cajon (29-3).

After muscling up on soft opponents for years, Cajon stepped up its schedule this season. It paid off against Ayala (27-5).

“I don’t think we could have won if we hadn’t played all those tough teams,” Clarendon said.

As for her older sister?

“She pushed me around when we were younger,” Layshia said. “She worked with me a lot off the court. Banging on me, pushing me to the limit, making me cry. She toughened me up a lot.”

“Head on, she may be the best player in Southern California,” said Ayala Coach Mel Sims, who was on hand Friday to watch Jasmine Dixon of Long Beach Poly and Atonye Nyingifa of Redondo. “She creates. As a pure guard, I don’t know if there’s a better guard in SoCal. She can do so many things. You’ve got to know where she is all the time. In a big game, she gets 25.”

The general feeling is that among the two Wells sisters at Fontana Miller, sophomore Chloe is better than senior Lola.

Leading scorer Chloe (17.5 points) has certainly proven herself already in clutch situations. But for the second year in a row in the championship game, it was Lola (9.7 points) who provided the big lift, leading Miller to a 51-40 victory over Rancho Cucamonga Los Osos for the Division I-A title.

Lola scored 17 points and had eight steals and six rebounds against Los Osos (25-6). She was the dominant player in the first half, and with the score tied, 27-27, in the third quarter, she made a three-pointer that gave the Rebels (28-2) the lead for good.

“She knows her sister is star status, she really don’t try to try to get involved with that,” Miller Coach Mel Wilkins said. “She just stays with the team concept and does what she needs to do.”

When the buzzer sounded and the awards were handed out, everyone on the Los Angeles Marlborough team smiled. Everyone but Nikki Speed, the senior guard headed to Rutgers.

What’s the deal, ticked off that she scored only eight points?

“You know, there’s more to do,” she said, citing the unfinished business of defending its Division IV state title. “Actually, I’m ecstatic.”

Dominique Chen scored 16 points and Marlborough beat Summit, 48-35, to win the Division III-AA championship, its sixth in a row.

martin.henderson@latimes.com