La Canada High School Squeaks by Crespi in State Championship

A half-hour or so after the final horn, on a now-empty basketball court that had been stormed by hundreds of fans moments earlier, opposing head boys basketball coaches Tom Hofman of La Canada and Russell White of Crespi had a moment to converse.

“You guys play good defense,” Hofman said to White.

“So do you!” White responded.

On Thursday night, La Canada’s defense was exactly one point better, as the Spartans opened their run at what would be the school’s first-ever state championship game appearance with a down-to-the-wire 43-42 victory.

“This is unbelievable,” said Spartans senior guard Riley Moore. “Beating Price for the CIF championship, nothing can top that. But this is right below it. Winning in the second round of state championships, the fans … I’ve never played in front of so many people before. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

The win was the 10th in a row for La Canada, but the Spartans’ last four playoff wins have been: by four in double-overtime, by one, by three in the section championship upset of Price, and by one over Crespi.

“It’s been tense ever since the playoffs started,” said Spartans star Michael McGlashan, who led all scorers with 18 points. “I’m not sleeping much lately.”

“Like after the rest of those playoff games, I’m exhausted,” said Hofman, before extending some admiration toward his players.

“Something about this team’s character in the last two minutes of games, it’s been phenomenal,” the La Canada coach said. “Faber’s been critical getting key rebounds in the final minutes in every game. And on offense, we’ve been getting the ball in Mikey’s hands; so far he’s made the right decision with it just about every time.”

With their latest gut-wrenching win, the Spartans (29-3) advance to the Southern California regional semifinals. In other words, they are two wins away from their first-ever appearance in a state championship game.

Crespi, meanwhile, can only contemplate what might have been. The Celts (24-9) had the ball in the final seconds, and got the ball to leading scorer Matt Mounier, but his three-point attempt from the right wing was long as time expired, setting off the La Canada celebration.

“[La Canada is] a really disciplined team,” said Mounier, who finishes his career as the second-leading scorer in Crespi boys basketball history. “They ran their stuff even when we pressured them. And we didn’t think their defense would hold us to so little.”

“We had a great season,” said White, whose team finished with its highest win total in his six years as head coach at Crespi. “But the ending is a little disappointing. We had hoped to win CIF, and to make more of a run in state. But they basically just made one extra play, one more play than we did down the stretch.”

Neither team ever took full control of the game: La Canada led for most of the first half, but its biggest lead was seven, and Crespi stormed back in the second quarter to take a 25-23 halftime lead. The Celts then led for most of the third quarter, but fell behind on a Matt Faber put-back of his own missed free throw.

Faber then struck again early in the fourth quarter, with a dunk in traffic that sent several hundred La Canada fans into a frenzy.

“I saw Mike [McGlashan] drive through the middle, and there was a perfect defensive shift; my guy went up on Mikey and I was wide open,” Faber said. “He fed me the ball. Two guys [came at] me, but I was just looking at the rim the whole time, and I was able to slam it through.”

Still, the Celts hung tough as they had all night, with a Mounier three and a fast-break basket by Kenny Stenhouse tying the game up at 37.

Then La Canada got a key basket from Dario CiVon, who had been the Spartans’ second-leading scorer in 2010-2011 but had not scored a single basket Thursday night. His three-pointer made it 40-37, but a London Perrantes free throw and another basket by Stenhouse (who wound up leading Crespi with 13 points) tied it up again at 40.

So the go-ahead basket came from yet another Spartan who’d been held scoreless until those final moments: starting point guard Mason Holle.

“We had set up for Mikey to go flat to the basket,” Holle said. “But if any shooters were open, he’d kick it out to us. He drove to my side, and I know how to knock down that shot. When I get those shots, I’m hitting them.”

Then Holle allowed himself to enjoy the fact that he was able to say that. “I’m so happy I hit it,” he said. “It felt so amazing after I hit it.…But I knew I still had to go back and play defense.”

Crespi would in fact score once more, another basket by Stenhouse, before missing on its last chance at the buzzer.

“We had a great season,” Stenhouse said. “We had a great run. We could have done a couple of things different. They just made more shots.”

They made just barely more shots, a phenomenon the Spartans hope will continue for a little while longer. The Spartans host Inglewood on Saturday at 7 p.m.—the same team that broke the Celitics’ hearts two weeks ago in the Southern Section Div. 3A semifinals. On Thursday, Inglewood knocked off Price, presumably in another nail-biter—the final was 56-55.

“These have been six or seven of some of the best, most exciting games I’ve played in my entire life,” said Faber, who finished with 13 points.

“It’s like a dream, but I do feel really tired when I get home. I can’t sleep; I’m always thinking about the game that happened and planning what’s going to happen next game. It’s like a dream, but at the same time, you do want to sleep sometimes.”

C             9              16           7              10           42
L              12           11           10           10           43

C – Connelly 0 0-0 0, Stenhouse 5 2-3 13, Perrantes 1 1-3 3, Coates 2 3-3 7, Mounier 4 1-2 11, Rubia 0 2-2 2, Johnson 2 0-0 5, Foreman 0 0-0 0, Simmons 0 1-2 1, Ephriam 0 0-0 0, Totals 14 10-15 42.

L – Faber 6 0-3 13,  Mintie 2 0-0 4, CiVon 1 0-0 3, Holle 1 0-0 3, McGlashan 8 0-0 18, Moore 0 0-0 0, Kim 0 0-0 0, Yerenekian 0 0-0 0, Boyd 1 0-0 2, Darzibashians 0 0-0 0, 19 0-3 43.

Three-pointers C – 4 (Mounier 2, Stenhouse, Johnson); L – 5 (McGlashan 2, Faber, CiVon, Holle).