PHOTOS: Los Alamitos survives tough challenge from Tustin to win another title

Los Alamitos players after winning the Tustin Classic Saturday night. (Photos: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

Los Alamitos High School’s boys basketball team brought home a third consecutive Tustin Classic title Saturday night.

But the Griffins had to battle from start to finish to win 59-50 against a determined Tustin squad, which was appearing in the Tustin tournament finals for the first time since 2014.

Los Alamitos (14-3) came into the game averaging 96 points in its three previous Tustin Classic wins and had averaged about 88 points a game this season. The 59 points was the team’s second lowest this season.

To see the slide show, click on the first photo:

The Griffins had enough offense, led by tournament MVP Trent Minter, who scored 21 points to turn back the upset bid by the Tillers. Liam Gray and Wesley Trevino, who had 17 points, were named to the all-tournament team along with Tustin’s Johnny Villagrana, who had 13 points.

Johnny Sagarino led Tustin (11-7) with 15 points and teammate Carson Jue had 11 points.

Los Alamitos Coach Nate Berger was expecting a defensive challenge from Tustin, and he turned out to be right. The Griffins stepped up defensively, forcing some key Tustin turnovers.

“Hats off to them (Tustin), they played probably harder than us and probably performed better than us, it was a very physical game, they executed their style a little bit better than we executed our style,” Berger said. “They played very hard and had a very good week and beat good teams to get here. But bottom line, we still made plays to win the game.

“If it’s not your style and it feels different, I think it was hard for us to adapt to. The game is not going like we’re used, they’re high school kids and it’s hard to adjust. But we still hit big shots down the stretch and made plays we needed to win a ball game. Bottom line is we won, there were times when it didn’t feel good for us. I felt we missed a lot of opportunities early in the game to score and maybe pull away but we came to win and we won.”

Los Alamitos led 23-17 at halftime and extended its lead to 38-31 after three quarters. The Griffins went on a 7-1 run to start the fourth quarter to take a 45-32 lead. Tustin, behind Sagarino, who had 11 points in the quarter, made another push, cutting the lead to eight with about three minutes remaining.

But Los Alamitos regained control to capture the win.

“I couldn’t ask for anything more from our guys in terms of effort, intensity, attention to detail, following game plan and defensive toughness, it just came down to us turning the ball over too many times against their pressure which is not easy and it wasn’t one of our better shooting nights, but other than than you couldn’t ask for anything more,” said Tustin Coach Ringo Bossenmeyer.

“As a coach you’re just asking for a team to play with heart and soul and we did that and I think Los Alamitos knows they were in a battle. If you consider that we turned it over probably 17 times, basically our five-on-five defense was pretty dang good. It was a great week and a good way to end 2023, now we got to step forward to 2024 and we open (league) with Cypress here on Friday night, so the challenges don’t get any easier.”

Bossenmeyer said that Villagrana, the Tillers’ all-tourney player, stood out in all four games.

“He’s grown on both sides of the floor and he enjoys the moment and he doesn’t mind taking big shots,” Bossenmeyer said.

—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com