PHOTOS: Star’s return from injury lifts Crean Lutheran past Notre Dame and into So Cal final

Vyctorius Miller of Crean Lutheran drives to the basket Saturday night as No. 21 Koat Keat waits for a rebound. (Photos courtesy Crean Lutheran Shutterbugs, John Luciano and Howard Lyon).

Crean Lutheran High School’s boys basketball players got a big lift even before they took the court Saturday night for the CIF Southern California Division 1 regional semifinal against Notre Dame Sherman Oaks.

The Saints found out that their 6-10 center Koat Keat, had been cleared after missing the first two games of the regional with knee soreness.

Keat’s return sparked the Saints, who captured a 72-65 victory to advance into Tuesday’s Southern California regional final against top seeded Damien, who defeated St. Bernard 70-65 in the other semfinal. The game will be at 6 p.m. at Damien.

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Second seeded Crean Lutheran (26-5) will get a chance to avenge a 64-59 loss to Damien in the opening round of the CIF Open Division playoffs on Friday, Feb. 11.

“It was a heckuva win, I’m really proud of our boys,” said Crean Lutheran Coach Nate Klitzing. “KK (Keat) being here tonight was the ultimate lift, we needed him, he’s the heart and soul, the engine of our team and the boys just banded together.

“They’ve been playing such great defense and that team has some unbelievable players and they’ve had an unbelievable year. All-around, it was a great defensive effort.”

Keat opted to come off the bench instead of starting and Notre Dame jumped out to an early 5-0 lead causing some concern for the Saints fans in the Crean Lutheran gymnasium.

Keat came in with 2:44 left in the first quarter and the game close and helped the Saints move out to a 36-22 halftime lead. He wound up with 13 points and 12 rebounds. Vyctorius Miller led Crean Lutheran with 20 points, Parker Tuttle had 17 points and five 3-point field goals and Darrell Morris scored 10 points.

“I missed playing, I love playing the game,” Keat said. “It’s good to come back today, I’m so happy. It (the knee) feels better than before. We have to push through stuff. We’re on to the finals of the regional, hopefully we give it our best on Tuesday and go hard.

“If we win, we win as a team, we lose, we lose as a team.”

Notre Dame Sherman Oaks (21-8) put up quite a challenge in the hard-fought game. The Knights were also cheered on by a large contingent of their fans.

After trailing by 14 at halftime, the Knights came out fired up in the third quarter scoring the first 12 points to cut the lead to two. Notre Dame Sherman Oaks moved ahead 42-41 on a basket by Luke Rishwain with 2:50 left in the third quarter.

But Crean Lutheran regained a two-point lead after three quarters and Tuttle helped seal the win with three 3-pointers in the final quarter.

“My role was really just to lock down their best player and then shoot when I had the chance, so that’s what I did,” Tuttle said. “My teammates were getting some open looks and they were just feeding me the ball so I caught it and shot it.”

Tuttle said the Saints were excited to have Keat back.

“He is a big help,” Tuttle said. “He’s one of our best players, if not the best player on the team and to have him offensively and defensively presence wise is crazy. His rebounding is amazing.”

Ben Shtolzberg scored 22 points and made six 3-pointers and Daniel Margusov scored 17 points to lead Notre Dame Sherman Oaks.

Crean Lutheran will be out to win Tuesday and have a shot at winning a state title next weekend. The Saints captured the CIF 2A title last season before losing in the regionals.

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