Three-point shooting funk sinks La Cañada boys’ basketball
LOS ANGELES — Through grit, execution and free-throwing shooting, the La Cañada High boys’ basketball team stayed within firing range of host Los Angeles Loyola High for 3 1/2 quarters of Tuesday evening’s CIF Southern Section Division I-A quarterfinal contest.
Unfortunately for the Spartans, they’re three-point shooting was out of rhythm again and it cost La Cañada in a 71-63 defeat.
The victory vaulted No. 5-ranked Loyola (19-9) into Friday’s division semifinals.
Fourth-seeded La Cañada capped its season with a 25-5 record, a second straight undefeated Rio Hondo League crown and advancement to at least the quarterfinal round for a fourth consecutive season.
This season’s accomplishments came after the graduation of All-Area Player of the Year Koko Kurdoghlian and the move all the way up from Division IV-AA to Division I-A.
“The only way we were going to beat these guys was to shoot better,” La Cañada Coach Tom Hofman said. “[Loyola] is a good team. They’re more athletic than us and to counter their athleticism, we had to make some tough shots.”
La Cañada finished having hit only three of 20 (15%) three-point attempts a game after converting six of 26 (23%) tries in a 60-53 victory over San Clemente.
Spartans senior center Sean Estes led all scorers with 26 points, five rebounds and four blocks, while senior guard Justin Kouyoumdjian added 16 points and five rebounds and junior guard Patric Panoosi chipped in 11 points before fouling out at the five-minute mark in the fourth.
La Cañada trailed, 69-63, with 37.3 seconds left and had two looks at three-pointers, but missed on both before the second attempt was rebounded by the Cubs, who then saw forward Dylan Boehm (team-high 15 points) fouled.
Boehm connected a free throw with 18.6 seconds left and La Cañada came down again and missed on its final triple try. The Spartans missed all six of their three-point tries in the quarter.
“You have to hand it to Loyola, they played great defense and they won,” Kouyoumdjian said. “There are nights when your shots don’t fall and tonight was one. We could have done some things better, like we could have motioned better, but that’s the way it goes. All I can say is I’m proud of these guys and this season.”
La Cañada trailed, 50-45, after three quarters and fell behind, 58-49, with 4:40 left as the Spartans went over five minutes without a field goal.
That streak snapped when Kouyoumdjian knifed through the lane, sank a bucket and was fouled. The Spartans senior made his subsequent free throw and followed that up with a lay-up off a steal as La Cañada suddenly pulled within 58-54 with 3:42 left.
Yet, for as much as the Spartans tried to rally, they just couldn’t stop Loyola in the fourth.
The Cubs sank six of eight field goal tries in the frame and scored five straight points to go back up by nine with 2:40 left.
La Cañada battled back when a steal from Brendan Co led to a lay-up with 1:24 left that brought the Spartans within 65-59.
Co stole possession again and kicked to a driving Spartans shooter for an open three-pointer. Yet, as had been the story all night, the three clanked out.
“Stuff happens like that to every team and you just have to try your best to play through it,” Estes said. “I definitely wanted to come out and give my best effort and I think we did everything we could.”
Loyola took a 13-9 lead after one quarter and led by six points with under a minute left in the first half before five straight points from Estes had La Cañada trailing, 29-28, at the half.
Loyola only led by two with a minute left in the third quarter, but used a 5-2 spurt to take a 50-45 lead after three.
