L.A. Adventist’s Kenyatta Louder, the game’s leading scorer with 20 points, boxes out Laguna Blanca’s Andrew Vignolo.
Down six points to L.A. Adventist with less than five minutes to play in Tuesday’s CIF game, Laguna Blanca’s boys basketball team needed to do something fast in order to extend its season for at least another game.
Little did everybody know, the trap was set and just waiting to spring.
“We went to our half-court trap which is just unbelievable for us,” said Owls guard Spenser Wyatt. “It won us our previous CIF game and it certainly won it for us this game.”
Spenser Wyatt takes a contested shot in the first half of Tuesday’s game in front of Eagles defender Daniel Wright.
The sudden switch in strategy threw the Eagles off balance and Laguna Blanca raced back to finish the CIF Division-6 quarterfinal game on a 15-2 run, vanquishing visiting L.A. Adventist 67-60 in Merovick Gym.
By topping fourth-seeded LA Adventist, the fifth-seeded Owls advance to Friday’s CIF semifinal where they will face top-seeded Trinity Classical Academy on the road.
Laguna Blanca led for most of the game until the Eagles manufactured a 10-0 run that straddled the third and fourth quarters. A four-point lead near the end of the third quarter was suddenly a six-point deficit. Jack Kinsler broke the streak with a layup at the five-minute mark, but L.A. regained its six-point lead on a basket by Kenyatta Louder that made the score 58-52.
That’s when Laguna Blanca called a timeout and decided to trap on defense.
Stephen McCaffery scored on a layup, which was quickly followed by two consecutive steals and layups by Michael Reyes and McCaffery. Suddenly it was a tie game with 2:57 on the clock.
L.A. Adventist would turn it over two more times – leading to Laguna Blanca points both times – before a basket by the Eagles made the score 63-60. By then there was only 20 seconds remaining in the game and not enough to make up the difference.
Eagles head coach John Damon would have liked to have seen his team do better under pressure. He said the Eagles’ poor defense hurt them the most in the fourth quarter.
“Our guys, they folded. There’s no other way to say it because they are my seniors,” said Eagles head coach John Damon. “They didn’t want it enough.”
“In my opinion, at the end, everybody wanted somebody else to make the play. And nobody made one.”
The Eagles finish their season with a 19-7 record.
Louder led the Eagles scorers with 20 points.
Stephen McCaffery led Laguna Blanca with 20 points, seven rebounds and four steals. Andrew Vignolo (11), Michael Reyes (12) and Wyatt (12) were all in double figures.
LAGUNA BLANCA 67, L.A. ADVENTIST 60
L.A. Adventist – Cavangha 4, Stance 12, Louder 20, Flower 4, Wright 4, Dangerville 4, Turner 12.
Laguna Blanca – Reyes 12, Kinsler 12, McCaffery 20, Wyatt 12, Vignolo 11.
LA 18 16 14 12 – 60
LB 20 18 12 17 – 67
