San Juan Hills coach Jason Efstathiou presents the runner-up trophy to his players Saturday. (Photos courtesy Mark Bausman, For OC Sports Zone).
San Juan Hills boys basketball team made a big comeback in the second half to take the lead but Sacred Heart Prep rallied Saturday and defeated the Stallions 47-45 on two free throws with less than a second left in the CIF State Division IV final at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
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San Juan Hills, coached by Jason Efstathiou, was hoping to cap a memorable post-season run with the program’s first state title after battling through numerous injuries and adversity during the regular season. The Stallions won four consecutive games to reach Saturday’s final.
They battled on Saturday, like they have done all year.
But the Gators’ Alex Osterloh was fouled attempting a 3-pointer and made two of three free throws with to give Sacred Heart the lead. He missed the third shot intentionally off the backboard, but since the ball did not hit the rim, San Juan Hills was awarded the ball.
However, the inbounds pass sailed out of bounds on the other end and Sacred Heart celebrated the win.
“Sacred Heart is a great team, well coached and congratulations to them on the state title,” Efstathiou told Tim Burt of OC Sports Zone a couple hours after the game after meeting with reporters in Sacramento. “But for us it’s just a brutal way to lose in this final two minutes after coming back and having that late lead.
“The game result was absolutely devastating. I thought we defended pretty well, never got into a good flow offensively. But ultimately our 19 turnovers and giving up 15 offensive rebounds cost us the game. They did a solid job of being physical with us and turning us over.
“We were up four {points} with less than two munutes and we gave up another offensive board and turned over the ball three times to give them a last chance opportunity. We had the ball for a final possession and a turnover occured with 12 seconds left on a play that we honestly thought should have been called a foul. Our video of it is pretty good too and we were surprised it was not called.
“And then on the other end, it’s so brutal to have a foul called on a three-point shot with 0.3 seconds left in the game. The situation of it all. We are just heartbroken. But ultimately we didn’t do enough to earn the win. And we told our boys they were going to have to earn it if they wanted to get it.”
The Stallion coach pointed out that Sacred Heart advanced to the final after a foul was called with 0.7 seconds left in the regional final vs. Half Moon Bay.
“We showed the clip to our boys and told them that you never want to leave the game decided by the referees,” he said. “And it’s so crazy that we talked about that and then that happened to us and now here we are having a state title in our grasp and in our hands and it’s just ripped right out.”
Osterloh led Sacred Heart (21-11) with 15 points. Pat Bala added 13 points.
San Juan Hills (21-15) was led by Garrett Brehmer, who had 17 points, Rocco Jensen who scored 10 points and Kellen Owens who had eight points. Parker Hull scored six points for the Stallions.
After trailing by as many as 12 points in the second quarter and 24-17 at halftime and with several players in foul trouble, San Juan Hills battled back in the second half and cut the lead to four points going into the final stanza.
The Stallions took their first lead, 40-38, with 5:29 remaining on a basket by Brehmer. Sacred Heart regained the lead but San Juan Hills regained it, moving out to a 45-41 lead with 1:55 left.
Sacred Heart tied the game 45-45 on a two free throws by Osterloh following a steal with 1:15 remaining.
After both teams missed chances to go ahead, San Juan Hills got the ball back with 35 seconds, called timeout in the front court with 31 seconds. But the Stallions came up empty handed and Sacred Heart got the ball back with 11.9 seconds remaining to go for the game winnng play.
San Juan Hills made 19 of 42 field goal attempts (45.2 percent) while Sacred Heart made 17 of 56 (30.4 percent). San Juan Hills connected on just 2 of 13 3-point field goals (15.4 percent) and had 19 turnovers.
Sacred Heart outrebounded San Juan Hills 35-30.
Sacred Heart led 10-8 after one quarter.
(Stats provided by CIF State Office).
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