After an emotional week, Stone Ridge Christian High junior Daijon O’Neil couldn’t wait to get back on the basketball court.
The Knights guard was forced to miss Stone Ridge Christian’s section championship game as he served a one-game suspension following a controversial ejection in the final minute of the Knights’ semifinal win over Elite of Vallejo on Feb. 25.
O’Neil admitted to being a little nervous, but gave Knights coach Tyler Rodgers a steady hand to lean on as the SRC star scored nine points and helped stave off a late comeback in a 71-60 victory over Point Arena in the first round of the Northern California Regional Division VI playoffs on Wednesday night.
“He’s a three-year varsity player who has played in a lot of big games,” said Rogers. “We don’t use him as a point guard unless we need to. In crunch time in this game we needed him at point guard.”
O’Neil played the role of assistant coach and cheerleader while sidelined with the suspension in the Sac-Joaquin Section championship game on Feb. 27.
A referee whistled O’Neil for a flagrant foul and ejected him for elbowing an Elite player in the face. Stone Ridge Christian appealed the ejection and suspension on Wednesday, Feb. 26, submitting video footage that showed there was little to no contact with the elbow to the Elite player’s face.
The Sac-Joaquin Section office sent the footage to the referee to see if he would change the call, but the referee stood by the decision. The appeal was denied because it was a judgment call by the official.
“I got pulled out of class,” said O’Neil about the day following the ejection. “I thought I was going to get good news. Instead coach Tyler said he had bad news. There was just a ton of emotion. When I found out I wasn’t playing, I cried.”
When the tears dried, O’Neil decided he was going to do what ever he could to help his team win back-to-back section championships. He was up in the team huddles during timeouts. He was helping his teammates with what he could see from the bench.
“It’s hard to imagine anyone handling his situation better than he did,” said Rogers, whose team won their 21st game in a row to improve to 24-8. “He was the biggest fan of his teammates. We has letting me know how many timeouts I had, helping me coach. He’s an impact player on and off the court.”
O’Neil just wanted to help anyone he could and celebrated as the Knights defeated Sacramento Waldorf 49-43.
“I had to be there for them because they’ve all been there for me,” O’Neil.
O’Neil had to battle the emotions on Wednesday night as he returned to the court. He and his team got off to a slow start as the Pirates (21-5) jumped out to 13-4 lead in the first quarter.
The Knights, who are seeded No. 2 in the NorCal Division VI playoffs and ranked No. 5 in the state in DVI by MaxPreps, battled back with a strong effort on the defense end until the shots started to fall on the offensive side.
Stone Ridge Christian received contributions across the board in scoring with Jaiden Sahota leading the way with 17 points to follow up his 25-point effort in the section championship game.
Sophmore center Tyler McCabe added 13 points and Cooper Trost, Marcus Parker and Colton Trost all chipping in with eight points apiece.
“Obviously with DJ out we played a different way,” Rogers said. “Getting him back in the mix makes us better.”
The Knights will host No. 3 St. Bernard’s from Eureka in the regional semifinals at 7 p.m. Saturday. The Crusaders (23-5), who are ranked as the No. 1 Division VI school in the state by MaxPreps, defeated Biggs 90-57 on Wednesday.
This story was originally published March 6, 2025 at 11:09 AM.
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Sports writer Shawn Jansen has been covering Merced area sports for 20 years. He came to Merced from Suisun City and is a graduate of San Diego State University. Prior to the Sun-Star, Shawn worked at the Daily Republic in Fairfield.