Los Alamitos’s Liam Gray looks for an open teammate as Crean Lutheran’s Jordan Ceballos defends. (Photos courtesy Crean Lutheran Shutterbugs, John Luciano and Howard Lyon).
Los Alamitos High School’s boys basketball team is headed to the CIF finals for the first time since 2007.
The Griffins extended their winning streak to 10 games with an 82-57 victory over Los Alamitos in a CIF Division 1 semifinal Friday night in front of a standing room only crowd at Los Alamitos.
To see the slide show, click on the first photo:
Los Alamitos will face the winner of the Santa Barbara vs. Mira Costa game which will be played Saturday. The final will be next weekend at a location to be announced.
Crean Lutheran (18-12) had its six-game winning streak snapped but had already qualified for the CIF Regionals which start the week after the CIF finals. Los Alamitos also advances.
Five Los Alamitos players scored in double figures and the Griffins pulled down 37 rebounds and displayed dominating play. Samori Guyness led the way with 19 points and Wesley Trevino scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead the Los Alamitos attack.
Kedric Delaney scored 15 points, Trent Minter added 13 points and Tyler Lopez scored 12 points as the Griffins were virtually unstoppable.
“I think our rebounding was the difference in the game,” said Guyness, who along with Overland College-commit Liam Gray, Cal State Dominguez Hills-commit Trevino, and Colorado School of Mines-commit Minter all surpassed the 1,000 points scored in their careers this season. “We’re a team of guards and they’re a big team, so our plan was to drive to the basket and crash the boards.”
Los Alamitos was successful driving to the basket and executed its offense flawlessly and caused Crean Lutheran issues with their pressing defense.
“It’s the first time in 18 years this school is going to the finals, and I’m so happy for these kids; they deserve it,” said Griffin Coach Nate Berger, a Los Alamitos alum. “It’s great for the program, the school and it was awesome to see the community come out and support us. They really pumped a lot of life into our team tonight.”
The game got off to a quick start and the pace was fast. The game was tied at 12-12 at the 2:15 mark of the opening quarter when Los Alamitos went on an 11-0 run to end the quarter. Guynesss scored six points during the surge and the Griffins led 23-12 after the first quarter.
Despite not scoring for a span of four minutes in the second quarter, Crean Lutheran stayed within striking range. However, two Los Alamitos free throws and a Crean Lutheran turnover in the final seconds led to an easy Griffins basket and Los Alamitos upped its lead to 40-28 at halftime.
Los Alamitos came out strong in the third quarter and scored on nine of its first 11 possessions. Delaney’s 3-pointer increased the Griffins lead to 56-38 with 2:41 left in the quarter. Lopez led Los Alamitos on a 9-0 run over the final 1:28 of the quarter and the Griffins extended their lead to 60-42 after three quarters and cruised in for the win.
“It’s amazing, it’s incredible on how I feel right now; the school hasn’t gone to the finals in a long time,” said Minter. “Words can’t describe how I feel.”
Hunter Caplan led the Saints with 20 points. Jordan Ceballos added 12 points and Caden Jones scored 10 points.
“We’ll learn from this game, and we still have basketball left this season,” said Caplan. “They played fantastic defense but I’m proud of our team. We fought to the end.”
Ceballos said the Saints defense was the difference.
“We didn’t play with the intensity we needed tonight and in the second half I could see that they wanted it more than us,” said Ceballos.
Crean Lutheran’s Matt Ciftcikara said Los Alamitos’ pressure caused the Saints trouble.
“They came out and trapped us and made us turn the ball over,” said Ciftcikara. “We didn’t execute, but we’ll take time and heal up and get ready to make a run at a state championship in a few weeks.”
Saints Coach Nate Klitzing credited Los Alamitos.
“They outplayed us tonight,” said Klitzing. “I’m disappointed but we didn’t make shots, and you have to give credit to Los Alamitos. But I ‘m still proud of what these guys did this season. If you would have told me at midseason, we would be playing in the semifinals, I would have been blown away. These guys are resilient.”
Notes:
—-Crean Lutheran was attempting to reach the CIF finals for the first time since 2021 when it defeated Agoura.
—Hunter Caplan played with a slightly swollen knee and Matt Ciftcikara played with a banged-up elbow for Crean Lutheran.
—Trevino recorded his 8th double double of the season and 11th of his career.
—Los Alamitos defeated Redondo Union in the 2007 CIF finals 67-50. It was the last time the Griffins have reached the CIF finals.
—Los Alamitos reached the semifinals by defeating Vista Murrieta, Long Beach Poly and Rolling Hills Prep. Each win was by single digits while the Saints defeated San Clemente, Brentwood School and Campbell Hall to reach the semifinals.
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