Crean Lutheran players and coaches celebrate the outright Empire League title Monday night. (Photo Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone)
Crean Lutheran High School’s boys basketball team wasn’t about to be denied Monday night in an Empire League rematch.
The Saints came out strong from the start and finished with a bang to defeat defending three-time champion Cypress 77-58 at Crean Lutheran to capture the program’s first Empire Leagure title. Crean Lutheran (12-2, 9-0) won the title outright.
Both teams have one more league game remaining on Thursday.
Cypress needed to win Monday’s game in order to share the crown. The Centurions had their streak of three consecutive Empire League titles snapped. Crean Lutheran, ranked No. 1 in this week’s CIF 2A poll, also defeated the Centurions 75-56 on April 30 at Cypress.
“I’m ecstatic, it’s been a work in progress and compliments to Cypress, every year they are tough as nails and it goes through them and finally we had our chance,” said Crean Lutheran Coach Nate Klitzing. “I’m just so proud of our boys to take this league championship.”
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Crean Lutheran had three players score in double figures. Michael Birket led the way with 17 points. Parker Tuttle had 15 points and 6-9 junior Koat Keat scored 15 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and had seven assists. Forward James Agany, a 6-11 junior, added eight points and 14 rebounds. Jack Fairchild also had eight points for the Saints.
“Mike hit some big shots for us today and got us going early,” Klitzing said. “That’s kind of what he’s been doing. He’s been great early and today he got it going a little bit in the second half and hit some key shots when we needed a bucket and Koat does it all for us, he rebounds, he settles us down and he’s a great passer and he’s so unselfish that it’s contagious for our team.”
Cypress (9-5, 7-2) was led by junior forward Dylan Higa, who had 15 points. KV Singh and Christian Chai added 10 points each for Cypress, which along with Crean Lutheran is headed to the CIF playoffs next week. The Centurions will advance as the No. 2 team from the Empire League.
Crean Lutheran led 21-18 after one quarter and extended the lead to 39-28 at halftime.
Cypress, coached by Derek Mitchell, continued to battle in the second half and was within striking distance going into the fourth quarter. But Keat hit a 3-point basket with 6:47 remaining in the game to make it 60-47 and Birket followed with a 3-pointer a couple minutes later to give the Saints a commanding 65-50 lead.
Crean Lutheran, supported by its home fans, then got ready to celebrate the crown.
“It was all a team victory,” Birket said. “We came into this game knowing it was going to be a battle. The first quarter was tough, but we came together as a team. Our coach pulled us together and he motivated us to get over the hump and win big tonight. I’m just glad that we got the win. We shared the ball today and that was probably our biggest strength today.
“We have a lot of momentum, but we just have to take it one game at a time. Anything can happen in the CIF playoffs. We have to put all of our effort into each game.”
“It was a good game, they came out strong, they’re a good team, they were ready, we trusted each other and that’s how we came out strong,” added Keat. “I knew they were going to come at me, so I decided to get other guys involved. Thank God we won the league today, that was our goal to win the league with no losses. I”m happy we won the league. We’re off to the playoffs and it’s going to get harder and harder. We just have to keep trusting each other and we’re going to go far.”
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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