Crean Lutheran’s Chadrack Mpoyi dunks as La Habra’s Acen Jimenez reacts Tuesday night. (Photos courtesy Crean Lutheran Shutterbugs, John Luciano).
Crean Lutheran’s boys basketball team took its game to another level Tuesday night and the timing couldn’t have been better for the Saints.
In front of a capacity crowd at Crean Lutheran, the Saints put together perhaps their best four-quarter effort of the season to defeat a tough La Habra team 76-67 in a Crestview League showdown matching two teams who were tied for first place.
To see the slide show, click on the first photo:
PHOTO: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone
With the win, Crean Lutheran (20-7, 6-1) inched closer to its second straight Crestview League title. The Saints can wrap up the crown with a victory at home Friday vs. Foothill.
La Habra (20-7, 5-2) dropped into second place with one game left on Tuesday, Feb. 3 vs. Canyon. The Highlanders handed Crean Lutheran its only league loss, defeating the Saints 69-56 in the first round at La Habra.
That loss appeared to provide an incentive for Crean Lutheran, which jumped out to a 26-16 lead after one quarter and led the rest of the way, fairly comfortable for most of the game.
“This game was super important,” said Crean Lutheran guard Nick Giarrusso, who had 16 points and contributed in numerous ways. “When we lost to La Habra, that student section, I was so frustrated and I had a lot of emotions that game. I wanted to go out and I had this game circled after that game.
“We were so locked in, you could tell from before the game, we were really dialed in and not messing around, it was super important. I was excited and happy we got the dub.”
Crean Lutheran, ranked No. 2 in OC, was led by 6-11 center Chadrack Mpoyi who had 28 points, 16 coming in the second half. Guards Hunter Caplan (10 points, three 3-pointers) and Caden Jones (eight points) also contributed.
La Habra, ranked No. 7, was led by senior guard Acen Jimenez, who scored 26 points and tried to carry his team to another victory over Crean Lutheran with his all-out effort on both sides of the ball.
Aaron Wilson added 15 points and Josh Desatoff had 14 points for the Highlanders.
First year Crean Lutheran head coach Austin Loeb was impressed how his team responded after struggling in a loss to Bishop Gorman Saturday in the Nike Extravaganza.
“I’m just blessed to coach this group,” Loeb said. “I think they understood the gravity of this game, they flew around and when a group gives that kind of effort, it’s inspiring, it fires me up. I’m thankful for them and their effort on the defensive end. That was one of the things we talked about when you play in a championship game like this, it’s not about any one player individually, it’s about how we can defend and then share the ball.
“We did a heckuva job, to play man as long as we did against that team that really moves the ball with five guards and with our bigs, kudos to them for locking in, our communication was excellent on ball screens and identifying their shooters. And we rebounded, when a team shoots that many three’s, their misses go long. Before the game, we talked about trying to win the 50-50 rebounds and loose balls and for the most part, I think we got about three quarters of them.”
And the Saints had Mpoyi displaying his dominance.
“We just came off one loss last weekend against Bishop Gorman,” said Mpoyi. “We lost against La Habra in the first game so it was revenge for us. The first game was more about us, we just tried to clean up some stuff and be more aggressive defense and try to push the ball because they have very good defense.”
Crean Lutheran held a 39-31 hallftime lead but La Habra continued to battle, cutting the margin to four points in the third quarter on a basket by Desatoff. However, the Saints led by 10 points after three quarters and Mpoyi dominated in the final quarter scoring 10 points to seal the win.
Jimenez, a Dartmouth commit, did hit a 3-pointer with 30 seconds left to cut the lead to six points but that was as close as the Highlanders could get.
“Obviously, it was not the way we wanted it to go,” said Jimenez, who had 30 points in the win over Crean Lutheran at home. “We had a lot of lapses on defense, we started out slow on defense, and that’s just unacceptable to be honest, but we fought hard, we’re undersized but our guys put up a battle, that’s all you can ask for.”
La Habra was at a decided disadvantage against the taller Crean Lutheran team. The Highlanders were also without 6-0 forward Noah Poppin, who was attending the funeral of a family member, according to La Habra Coach Aaron Riekenberg.
“It’s really tough,” Jimenez said of the height advantage Crean Lutheran had. “Chadrack is just such a beast in the paint. We fought, that’s all we can do. It took us a long time for us to get going, especially in the first quarter but we can’t keep giving up 20 points in a quarter.”
Riekenberg also said defense was a problem for La Habra.
“The first quarter was huge,” he said. “We really didn’t follow our defensive assignments to start the game. We tried some new things and I was hoping it wouldn’t take us away from the bread and butter, but I think it did. We gave up 26 in the first quarter, we let Caplan get hot early, we let zero (Caden Jones) get a couple open looks.
“There’s not much we’re going to do with Chadrack, the key was to take away those shooters, that’s what we did in the first game, we didn’t do as well tonight. They’ve got a lot of weapons and did a great job.”
La Habra will likely finish second or third in league and advance to the CIF playoffs.
“Division 1 playoffs, we will see what happens there,” Riekenberg said. “I’m proud of my guys, but I think we could have done better to start that game.”
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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