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Crean Lutheran players and Coach Nate Klitzing meet before the start of the fourth quarter Tuesday night. (Photos courtesy Jim McCormack, For OC Sports Zone).
LAVERNE — It was a déjà vu moment that Crean Lutheran High School’s boys basketball team could have done without.
For the second time in a month the Saints saw a double-digit lead dissipate at a critical moment as host Damien High School rallied Tuesday for a 58-53 victory in the CIF Southern California Regional Division I basketball final.
With the victory, Damien (31-6) moves on to represent Southern California in the state tournament in Sacramento. The Spartans will face Clovis West in the Division 1 title game Friday night at 8 at Sacramento’s Golden 1 Arena.
To see the slide show, click on the first photo:
Tuesday night’s contest was frustratingly similar to a Feb. 11 match between the schools when Crean Lutheran led by 20 in the first half only to have Damien rally for a 64-59 victory.
Tuesday the teams played an incredibly entertaining and tightly contested game when things seemed to turn in the Saints’ favor and they build a 40-29 lead with 2:06 left in the third quarter.
But Damien didn’t go away.
“Basketball is a game of runs,” Crean Lutheran Coach Nate Klitzing said. “And we knew that was going to be the case tonight. They’re very good offensively and have the capability of scoring quickly.”
No-2 seeded Crean Lutheran built its third-period lead with a remarkable diversity of scoring. The Saints scored 13 points in the quarter with Parker Tuttle hitting a three and five other players, Rui Han, Vyctorius Miller, Koat Keat and Darrell Morris, each adding two points.
The game turned on the blink of an eye then for top-seeded Damien, with Spivey Wood scoring seven points and Kaleb Smith two to narrow the deficit to four by the end of the period.
Smith scored 14 seconds into the fourth period on a put-back 14 and added the and-one to make it 40-39, Crean Lutheran.
The Saints were within two, 52-50 with 1:37 to play and forced a turnover but lost the ball themselves seconds later and Word hit a difficult shot with 32 seconds to play the seal the deal.
It will take a while for the disappointment of this loss to dissipate, but, when it does, the Saints will look back on an impressive season. They were undefeated in league, played in the elite Open Division of the CIF playoffs and won 25 of 32 games.
“I’m proud of our guys,” Klitzing said. “Proud of the way they fought back after a couple of tough losses in the open division. We could have packed it in, but these guys renewed their energy and spirit. They channeled everything we had talked about all year which was to continue to play for each other, to play for God’s glory.
“We came up a couple of shots short here, but I’m really proud of the resiliency our guys showed.”
Tuesday night, Koat, the senior 6-10 senior, led the Saints with 17 points followed by Miller with 12. Smith and Word scored 14 each for Damien and Jimmy Oladokum added 12.
—Courtesy Jim McCormack, For OC Sports Zone
