Caden Jones of Crean Lutheran drives as Centennial’s Karter Butler defends Thursday night. (Photos courtesy Crean Lutheran Shutterbugs, John Luciano).
Crean Lutheran’s boys basketball team battled back from a nine-point halftime deficit to defeat No. 2 seeded Centennial Corona 71-66 Thursday night in the second round of the CIF State Division I Regionals in Corona.
To see the slide show, click on the first photo:
The No. 7-seeded Saints (28-7) move into the semifinals Saturday against No. 6-seeded Damien at Damien.
“We didn’t play well in the first half, settled in after some halftime adjustments and the boys played great,” said Crean Lutheran Coach Austin Loeb, who led the Saints to the CIF Division 1 championship last week.
Hunter Caplan scored 25 points, all in the second half, to lead the Saints surge, according to Loeb. Chadrack Mpoyi added 17 points and Caden Jones 11 points for the Saints.
Damien advanced to the semifinals with a 59-55 victory over No. 3-seeded Crespi.
“Damien is always disciplined, tough and executes their stuff really well,” Loeb said. “It’s going to take another big step from our group.”
The winner of Saturday’s game meets the winner of the other semifinals between No. 16 Mater Dei and No. 4 St. John Bosco. The regional final will be held on Tuesday, March 10.
The home team is determined by which team has the higher seeding.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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