La Cañada boys’ basketball earns league title share
MONROVIA — It is a scenario that has been perpetuated dozens of times over the course of the past 32 years.
Coach Tom Hofman’s La Cañada High boys’ basketball teams have an impressive track record of capturing Rio Hondo League championships.
The Spartans won their coach a share of another league title Tuesday evening with a 64-51 victory against host Monrovia.
It is the 26th league championship under Hofman, who began at the school during the 1986-87 season.
With the win, La Cañada improved to 18-9, 8-1 in league. The Spartans have a one-game lead over Blair (7-2 in league), which defeated San Marino on Tuesday, 67-51, with one game remaining. The Spartans can secure the undisputed title with a win Thursday at San Marino.
“We secured at least a co-championship, but we have one more game to go to get the championship,” said Hofman, who won his 700th game three weeks ago and ran his record to 705-213. “We just need one more win to get the whole thing and that’s what we’ll be concentrating on.”
Despite winning more than two dozen league titles, Hofman said earning a championship never gets old.
“The No. 1 goal we have each year is to try and win a league championship, that is what’s most important,” Hofman said. “It’s always nice to win one with a different team and a different group of guys.”
The Spartans received a pair of big efforts from Ryan Graves and Patric Panoosi. Graves scored a team-high 19 points and had five rebounds and Panoosi added 17 points and seven rebounds.
The Spartans had a slow start against the Wildcats (11-16, 2-7). Monrovia jumped out to a 7-2 start before La Cañada embarked on a 9-0 run to surge in front, 11-7. The Spartans ended the first quarter with a four-point lead, 13-9.
“We just weren’t hitting our shots early,” Graves said. “We were getting good looks but we just weren’t knocking them down. It just took us awhile to finally start connecting on those.
“When our shots aren’t falling, we just try to be more aggressive going to the basket. If we are going to continue to get looks we’re going to keep taking them.”
La Cañada opened the second quarter on a 9-0 run to increase its advantage to 22-9. But just when it appeared that the Spartans were going to take control of the game, the Wildcats surged back. Monrovia cut the deficit to 26-20 on a three-pointer by Adrian Garcia with 1:20 remaining. Panoosi scored the final four points of the stanza to give the Spartans a 10-point cushion, 30-20, at halftime.
“[Monrovia] came out hot and I think they were pretty excited because it was senior night and all,” Hofman said. “We defend well in spots, but we really have to be able to defend for the whole 32 minutes.”
Another big run to start the third quarter, this time an 8-0 clip, enabled the Spartans to go up 38-20 with 5:33 left following a basket by Jivan Shirvanian (eight points, six rebounds). The third ended with La Cañada in front 47-32.
The Spartans pulled away in the fourth quarter, increasing their advantage to 57-35 with 4:28 left.
Monrovia received 19 points from Rory Hare.
Twitter: @jefftsports
