IRVINE, Ca. – The results of the Division I of the California Southern Regional Boys Basketball playoffs continued to following seeding Thursday night.
No.’s 1 Damien (JSerra, 66-56), 2 Crean Lutheran (La Costa Canyon, 68-50), 3 Sherman Oaks Notre Dame (St. Anthony, 66-60) and 4 St. Bernard (Village Christian, 59-46) themselves into the Saturday night semifinals, which set the stage for the Tuesday night championship contest.
The higher seeds play in the hosts in the games set for 6 p.m., with the No. 1 Spartans taking on the No. 4 Vikings in La Verne and the No. 2 Saints welcoming the No. 3 Knights to Irvine.
Crean Lutheran (24-6) won its second game in a row without one of the west’s top forwards, UC Santa Barbara-bound Koat Keat, who has been sidelined since the team’s last game in CIF Southern Section pool play, a Feb. 18 loss at Corona Centennial.
The Saints were also playing without two other starters, guard Rui Han and 7-footer James Agany, Tuesday night at home when they fell behind by 17 points late in the second quarter before knocking off Del Mar Cathedral Catholic, 63-60.
But Coach Nate Klitzing’s team got off to considerably sharper start Thursday night against another team from San Diego County.
Six-foot-five Vyctorius Miller – a compelling challenger for State Sophomore of the Year honors – hit his first four shots, including three 3s, over the initial four minutes as his team sprinted to a 14-2 lead.
The Mavericks (22-8), who opened regional play Tuesday night by knocking off St. John Bosco, 67-65, finally got their offense as 3s by Brayden Hendricks, Vince Berlucci and Christian Brown got them to within 20-15 after the first quarter.
The visitors committed five turnovers and Miller and fellow sophomore guard Darrell Morris combined for 12 points and the hosts were up at intermission, 40-24.
They built the advantage to 17 points midway through the third quarter and, despite the Saints’ playing a tad fast and loose with the ball and their shot selection, the visitors never got closer than to within 10 points the rest of the way.
Miller (pictured) scored a game-high 26 points with eight rebounds, five assists and two steals; Morris went for 11 points, eight rebounds, three steals and two taken chargers while Agany – who was serving a disciplinary absence from uniform Tuesday night – scored nine points with 12 rebounds and three blocked shots.
Klitzing’s program won the CIF SS’s Division 2A title last spring before falling to Santa Margarita in the Regional D-II finale at home.
Strong performances on back-to-back weeks in December during the Tarkanian Classic in Las Vegas and at the Classic at Damien and a 22-3 record earned the Saints the No. 4 seed in the eight team CIF SS Open field for the first time.
They went 0-3 in Pool A (including narrow decisions to Damien and Bishop Montgomery, before their Feb. 18 game in Corona resulted in their third loss to top-ranked Centennial) and were – along with Damien and Notre Dame, 1-2 and 0-3, respectively, in their pools – dropped into D-I for the regional competition when the brackets were unveiled by the CIF State Office in Sacramento Sunday afternoon.
So, Klitzing had 11 days – a lot of those in conversation, and practice, with his players and staff – to try to get a handle on how prepared his team was to bounce back from the disappointment of those three CIF SS losses and regroup for another opportunity at regional action.
So far, so good . . .
I’m so proud of the resilience we’ve shown this week,” he said afterward.
“To come from 17 down (Tuesday) and then get some of our offensive ‘mojo’ back and play with great energy tonight – we’ve really banded together.”
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