Crean Lutheran’s Hunter Caplan goes up for a 3-pointer as Jaden Hitipeuw of Santa Fe Christian defends Tuesday night. (Photos courtesy Crean Lutheran Shutterbugs, John Luciano).
Crean Lutheran boys basketball players, coming off a CIF Division 1 championship run, survived a challenge from a scrappy Santa Fe Christian team and captured a 68-56 victory in the opening round of the CIF State So Cal Division I regional Tuesday night in front of a capacity crowd at Crean Lutheran.
To see the slide show, click on the first photo:
No-10 seeded Santa Fe Christian (26-5) led by five points after one quarter and by two points at halftime.
The game was tied 45-45 going into the final quarter.
But No. 7 seed Crean Lutheran, inspired by its vocal and enthusiastic home fans, including hundreds of members of the Blue Zone, stepped it up in the fourth quarter, outscoring Santa Fe Christian 23-11 to earn a spot in the second round Thursday night at No. 2 Centennial Corona.
Saints guard Hunter Caplan, held to two points in the first half, inspired the Saints (27-7) with three 3-pointers in the third quarter and another in the fourth quarter, winding up with 14 points.
Jacob Majok led Crean Lutheran with 16 points and a stellar defensive effort, Chadrack Mpoyi also had 14 points and Nick Giarrusso and Caden Jones nine points each for the Saints.
“We started off really slow, but we stayed together, we kept fighting and we live to fight another day,” Caplan said. “That’s what it’s all about, basketball is a game of runs and they came in early and surprised us a little bit. We just had to get settled with the crowd, new environment, new state playoff game, a first for everyone. Once we found our rhythm, we were able to keep going.”
Caplan was happy to hit some key 3-pointers.
“I had to, I love this group, I want to keep playing as long as I can, so whatever I can do to try and get that lead and help the team is what I’m going to do,” he said.
Majok was also clutch in the fourth quarter, scoring eight points and led a strong Saints defensive effort in the finals tanza.
“We went back to the locker-room and talked about it,” Majok said. “It’s not the first time being in that situation. We just came back and played good defense and that’s what brought us back. We let our defense dictate our offense, so that’s what we did. We got a couple stops, and we went on a run.”
Caplan hit a 3-pointer and Majok sank two free throws to put the Saints ahead 52-47 with 5:54 left. Santa Fe Christian, which had played tough all night, then missed two easy shots and Crean Lutheran took advantage, moving out to a 54-47 lead on a dunk by Mpoyi with 5:50 left.
Santa Fe Christian cut the lead to six with two minutes left but Crean Lutheran finished strong, then celebrated with its home fans.
Santa Fe Christian was led by Dax Hall, who scored 18 points and Chase Othick, who had 15 points.
But in the end, Crean Lutheran was able to weather the storm, then was able to come through in crunch time. Crean Lutheran Coach Austin Loeb had talked to his team about making the transition from the CIF finals into the state tournament.
“Southern Section was great, but this a whole new playoff, I think in the fourth quarter we grouped together three or four stops on possessions and like it’s been this entire run, defense has fueled our offense and we really fueled off of that,” Loeb said. “I can’t tell you enough how grateful I am for this crowd and our home Blue Zone and the all the fans and the community for showing out for a state playoff game.
“I think it gave us a big edge and it fueled our runs and made it a really fun environment for us. I’m super thankful for them and their support and I know our boys are too. We needed that energy. We played in a CIF championship less than 72 hours ago, and that was a hard-fought. This team (Santa Fe Christian) has had more time off than us. They were fresher, we needed them (the fans) to boost us, it was huge.”
Giarrrusso and Jones, two big contributors to the win, were also thrilled.
“We kind of just stayed locked in,” Giarrusso said. “We thought honestly we were going to come out and win. That team was so hard to guard, one through five they all shoot good and they have a really good player and we just had to get really locked in and crash the glass. We were finally crashing, getting second chances, third chances and Hunter came alive and started hitting shots which was huge and we were all playing our roles.”
“It was a good team win,” Jones added. “It just shows all the work we put in, just being able to fight through that grit, we’ve been in all those situations, and we’re just excited continuing to state. All of our bodies are banged up, but it’s just something you got to get used to, we have a new goal and we’re just excited to keep fighting for a new thing.
“We don’t want the season to be over. We know they’re a good team, very good coach, that was a good win by us, I’m proud of that.”
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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