IRVINE, Ca. – The Crean Lutheran boys’ basketball program – in just its 13th season – won its second CIF Southern Section championship Wednesday night, knocking off visiting Agoura, 68-58, in the 2A contest.
And one of its driving forces was a 6-foot-9, multi-skilled junior who was part of a CIF SS-winning team for the second season in a row.
Koat Keat, who led Glendale’s Renaissance Academy program (which is no longer part of the CIF) to a 4AA title last spring, had his hands in nearly every portion of the Saints’ success in front of a capacity crowd Wednesday.
Coach Nate Klitzing’s team, which came into the game with a 17-2 record and top seed in the division, trailed by as many as six points in the second quarter while trying to get a handle on Agoura’s terrific 6-2 senior offensive machine, Jed Miller.
But the Saint’s massive 2-3 zone – with a backline anchored by Keat and 6-11 James Agany, with three other players listed at 6-5 – finally was able to keep enough pressure on Miller to “hold” him to 27 points, 12 in the second half when he missed his final three jumpers in an attempt to keep the hosts from pulling away.
And Keat, besides doing his share to making it difficult on Miller (who finished nine of 17 from the floor, with six of those buckets coming from well behind the arc), also dictated much of the Saints’ offense.
Keat, who committed five first-quarter turnovers and didn’t attempt a shot until a minute into the second quarter, finished with a team-high 22 points (18 after intermission; he was 10 of 14 from the field and hit both of his two free throws) to go with 17 rebounds, eight assists and three blocked shots.
He scored or assisted on 17 of his team’s 19 fourth-quarter points.
Miller’s last bucket – a 3 – and his team’s final points got the Chargers (17-8) to within 61-58 with 1:55 remaining.
But Keat’s two free throws padded the lead to five and, after Agany spanked Sam Klaasen’s jumper, Keat recovered the ball and found senior Michael Birket for his fourth 3 (and 16th, 17th and 18th points) with 48 seconds to go.
After snatching the ball following another Miller misfire, Keat pushed the dribble at full speed and, with no retreating defenders to get in his way, punched the ball through the rim emphatically for the final points with 38 seconds remaining.
The Saints, whose only losses came to a couple of Southern Section Open teams, Mater Dei and Harvard-Westlake, have a few days to bask in the title win before finding the identity of their Tuesday night Southern Regional opponent Sunday afternoon.
“Koat does it all for us,” Crean Lutheran Coach Nate Klitzing said as mostly mask-less students and supports flooded the court after the awards presentation. “He’s a program changer.
“He can carry us in so many ways and that’s fine because he’s such a good kid and so unselfish. He’s got such a high basketball ‘IQ’. And he’s got ice water in his veins, as he showed when he hit the two free throws for us (with three seconds to go, to beat host Dominguez in a semifinal last Friday).”
But Keat was far from the lone ranger for the Saints, Wednesday night or during the season.
Birket (along with Alex Davis, one of two seniors in the starting lineup) was a model of consistency from deep all season – illustrated so emphatically by the jump-shooting effort Wednesday night that eventually helped coax the visitors to pull out of their zone.
“Michael has put the time in (the gymnasium, working on his jumper),” Kltizing said. “It’s exciting to see him have this kind of game.”
Those games with Mater Dei and Harvard-Westlake weren’t by happenstance:
Look for the Saints to play even more games against opponents of that caliber in the future, including, possibly, in the state’s top post-Christmas tournament in the west, the Dec. 27-30 Classic at Damien next winter.
“We’re developing quite a legacy in the short time the school has been around,” Klitzing said.
“We want to continue to prove we can compete and win against the best programs around.”
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