PHOTOS: Orange Lutheran battles to the end but St. John Bosco prevails 55-40

Tibet Gorener drives to the basket for Orange Lutheran as Randi Ovalle of St. John Bosco defends. (Photos courtesy Jim McCormack, For OC Sports Zone)

There were lots of things Orange Lutheran boys basketball coach Daniel Dunbar liked about his team’s Trinity League game with St. John Bosco Wednesday night.

The final score wasn’t one of them.

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

Junior Eric Goodrich Jr. puts up a shot over the defense of St. John Bosco's Josh Camper.

Orange Lutheran's Yeet Arcan (3) tries a difficult shot over the defense of St. John Bosco's Lamaj Lewis (10).

Orange Lutheran's Nick Flores avoids the defense of St. John Bosco's Wynton Brown (5).

Senior Tibet Gorener led Orange Lutheran with 14 points.

Orange Lutheran's Nick Flores passes off after driving the baseline.

RJ Flores of Orange Lutheran flips a short shot over the defense of St. John Bosco's Lamaj Lewis (10).

Orange Lutheran's Nick Flores tries to control the ball against pressure from St. John Bosco's Jeremiah Nyarko.

Orange Lutheran's RJ Flores and TJ Tittelfitz (22) defend against a shot by St. John Bosco's Christian Estrada.

Orange Lutheran's Tibit Gorener puts up a shot against St. John Bosco defenders Randi Ovalle (14) and Marco Kenz (13).

Facing perhaps the most athletic team in likely California’s best high school basketball league, the Lancers refused to let Bosco pull away until the final six minutes, falling 55-40.

The Lancers, who rallied from alarming deficits throughout the evening, were within two with six minutes to play when Bosco senior guard Josh Camper hit his only three of the night to start a 9-0 run by the Braves that was too much for the exhausted Lancers to overcome.

Until that point, Orange Lutheran which has only two seniors on its roster, had clipped away at 9 (twice) and 5-point (three times) deficits with shooting that got the Lancers close, but never into the lead.

“We had some good shots that just didn’t drop,” Dunbar said. “If we had made two or three of those, maybe we would have had the stamina to stay in it at the end.”

The Lancers were led by their best player, 6-8 senior Tibet Gorener, who is a member of the Turkish National Team. Gorener drew a lot of attention from Bosco’s tall and mobile defenders, but still managed to score 14 points. Junior guard Eric Goodrich Jr. scored 10 and guard Nick Flores added seven.

With such a young team, one might treat this as a building year, but that’s not the case with the Lancers. They are 13-5 overall, 1-2 in the Trinity League, and ranked among the Top 75 teams in the state by Maxpreps. They are playing for a spot in the CIF playoffs. Their next test is Friday night at 7 at JSerra.

Their opponent Wednesday night, St. John Bosco, is 15-5, ranked 24^th in the state,  and 2-1 in the Trinity League, tied for second with JSerra, behind Mater Dei (3-0). The CIF had an observer at Wednesday’s game to see if the Braves are good enough to be in the CIF’s Open Division in the playoffs. The Braves host Mater Dei Friday night.

—Story courtesy Jim McCormack for OC Sports Zone