Crean Lutheran players, including head coach Austin Loeb (center) celebrate after winning CIF Division 1 crown at the Toyota Arena Saturday. (Photos courtesy John Luciano, For OC Sports Zone).
From day one, Crean Lutheran boys basketball players and their first-year head coach talked about bringing home another CIF title to the school.
Saturday evening, the Saints inspired by their fans, including hundreds of student rooters from the Blue Zone, did just that surviving a serious challenge from No. 2 JSerra in the highly-anticpated CIF Division 1 final at Toyota Arena.
The top-seeded Saints were tested in the fourth quarter but parlayed some big shots down the stretch and a key defensive play to defeat JSerra 59-52.
To see the slide show, click on the first photo:
PHOTO: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone
It’s the third CIF title for Crean Lutheran and the first for Coach Austin Loeb. Crean Lutheran also won CIF titles in 2018 (3AA) and 2021 (2A).
Loeb, a long-time assistant with the program, said he was “blessed” to lead the Saints.
“First and foremost hats off to our opponent JSerra, who gave us all we could handle for most of the game,” he added. “It was Earl (Bryson) and (Jaden) Bailes and Godschoice (Eboigbodin) who really played a heck of a game.
“It was a game of runs. Ultimately we made some plays down in crunch time and I couldn’t be prouder. Couldn’t write it up any better.”
Crean Lutheran (26-7) had four players in double figures: Nick Giarrusso and Chadrack Mpoyi had 14 points each, Hunter Caplan 13 points with three 3-pointers and Caden Jones 10 points. Jacob Majok had five points and six rebounds.
The Saints defense was also tenacious against JSerra (23-13) which scored 103 points in a semifinal victory over Inglewood.
Bryson scored 21 points and Bailes 12 points to lead JSerra. Eboigbodin had 10 rebounds for the Lions.
Crean Lutheran made 51 percent of its field goal attempts compared to 38 percent for JSerra, which was going for its second CIF title.
Crean Lutheran led by as many as 13 points in the first half, but JSerra rallied trimming the lead to 26-23 lead at halftime. The Saints led by six points after three quarters.
The pace and the intensity picked up in the fourth quarter.
JSerra kept battling and took a 50-49 lead on a 3-pointer by Hunter Frates with 2:12 left in the game.
After falling behind by two points, JSerra tied the game 52-52 on a basket by Bryson with 1:07 left. But Crean Lutheran, out of a timeout, worked the ball to Giarrusso, who hit a clutch 3-pointer with 48 seconds left to put the Saints ahead 55-52.
On the next play, Mpoyi stole the ball as JSerra was trying to set up a shot and Giarruso added some insurance free throws, sealing the victory.
“This means everything,” Caplan said. “When we started practicing we wrote our goals down and a lot of them we weren’t able to keep but the biggest one, the last one, was to win a CIF championship. It’s always in the back of our head, win a CIF championship. So to see it all come through, it’s one of the best feelings I’ve ever felt and I’m super proud of the team and the coaches.
“The chemistry we play with and the amount of people who bought in let us become the best team we can be in February and March, which is always what coach loves preaching.”
JSerra Coach Keith Wilkinson was disappointed in his team’s start, but proud of its fourth quarter comeback.
“First and foremost, I think for us, we didn’t shoot it great, 19 of 50 (field goals), obviously not great, our guys gave us a chance by guarding, we got some timely deflections and timely steals and we were able to get back in the game,” Wilkinson said. “There was about 1:43 or two minutes left, Hunter our senior hits a big corner three and we go up one.
“I felt we scratched and clawed and although we didn’t play our best game tonight, we had a chance to win the game there …. overall I’m proud of my guys, love these dudes and obviously, there’s not a lot of fun right now.”
“Obviously it’s a tough loss,” added JSerra’s Ryan Doane, who had nine points and four rebounds. “It was a physical game, obviously we haven’t played these guys yet, we’ve played similar but I would say it’s devastating for us.”
Both teams will advance to the CIF So Cal Regionals next week and could end up meeting each other again. Pairings will be announced Sunday.
“We kind of just took it one game at a time,” Giarrrusso said. “It is a quick turn-around so, Monday we will prepare and we will be good for Tuesday.”
“We will find out in a couple days,” Wilkinson said of a possible rematch with Crean Lutheran. “Hopefully, we get to play them again, we would love that opportunity.”
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—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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