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Early run sees La Cañada High boys’ basketball race to victory

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LA CAÑADA – A 19-point run to close the first quarter set the tone Wednesday evening for the La Cañada High boys’ basketball team.

The Spartans led by 17 points after eight minutes versus visiting Temple City and never looked back in a 66-45 victory in Rio Hondo League action.

The win was the 15th in a row in league play for the CIF Southern Section Division I-A fourth-ranked Spartans (16-4, 3-0 in league).

“I liked the first half more than the second half,” La Cañada Coach Tom Hofman said. “I thought in the second half we came out flat and didn’t play hard and didn’t give all we had in 32 minutes. It’s a good thing we played very well in the first half.”

Temple City (9-9, 1-2) led, 7-5, on a running jumper from sophomore Caio Ye off an assist from Kevin Diep with 5:23 left in the first quarter.

La Cañada responded with a back-breaking 19-0 run that spanned two Rams timeouts and was capped on a three-pointer from Ryan Graves thanks to an assist from Tyler Wagner with nine seconds left in the quarter as the Spartans led, 24-7.

“To have a run like that, that means we’re all clicking,” said La Cañada senior center Sean Estes, who finished with a game-high 23 points. “It just means everyone is sharing the ball and taking good shots and it means we’re playing good defense, too.”

Estes contributed five points, two blocks and a steal to the run, while junior Patric Panoosi chipped in five points, a steal and a block and Graves buried two threes.

“Our point guard Justin [Kouyoumdjian] was finding the open man out there and all of our shots were falling during [the run],” said Panoosi, who finished with 10 points and five rebounds. “He did a great job of setting up the offense.”

Temple City tried to claw its way back and put together a 6-2 spurt to begin the second quarter to climb within 26-13 on a field goal from Diep with 4:13 left before halftime.

Unfortunately for the Rams, they never pulled any closer as La Cañada responded with seven of the next nine points and eventually took a 37-17 advantage into the break.

La Cañada’s lead never dipped under 15 points, as the Spartans were ahead, 50-32, after three quarters before finishing off with a 21-point victory.

Kouyoumdjian added 11 points and five assists for the Spartans, who received nine points from Graves and seven points from Tyler Rubendall.

Temple City’s Tyler Api put on a three-point show in the third quarter as he hit all three of his attempts and finished with a team-high 19 points. Diep chipped in 10 points for Temple City.

“For us, the key was defense,” Hofman said. “You can’t go on a 19-0 run without denying good shots and playing good defense. That’s what I liked. We got sloppy in the second half, but we were strong enough early to make a difference in the game.”

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