Mission League is a mess after Chaminade upset

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Got off the phone with Bryan Cantwell, the boys’ basketball coach over at Chaminade, a couple of minutes ago and he was more than happy to pull himself away from dinner at BJ’s Brewhouse in Woodland Hills to talk about the Eagles’ 66-54 Mission League upset over first place Harvard-Westlake earlier Wednesday night.

‘You better believe this was a big win for us,’’ Cantwell said. ‘I’m sure there were a lot of people that didn’t give us much of a chance in this game. But we came out and we weren’t intimidated. The kids knew if we played our game and didn’t worry about Harvard-Westlake, we could win. And we did. We had fun, too, that’s key.’’

The victory is important on numerous levels, not only for Chaminade, but for the rest of the league. The Eagles moved into a tie for fourth place with Verbum Dei and a step closer to securing an automatic berth for the playoffs. The Wolverines lost sole possession of first place and are tied with Loyola.

Crespi jumped back into the race as well, defeating St. Francis, 69-49, to move a game behind the front-runners with three games left in the regular season. Funny how one victory, one unthinkable upset, can mean so much. Guess that explains why Cantwell was so willing to talk.

-- Sean Ceglinsky