Boys’ basketball: Loyola came close

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Loyola played harder and appeared to want victory more, but Taft had the luck and Jordan Gathers on Tuesday to pull out a 66-65 victory over the Cubs at Taft.

The Cubs had Taft right where they wanted. They had the ball with 20 seconds left. They had just called timeout. Julian Harrell got the ball, briefly lost it, then drove to the basket and missed a layup. Tony Wroblicky got the rebound and missed the follow shot. Joe Stein got the loose ball and fired up a fall-away 15-footer at the buzzer. It wouldn’t go.

Gathers, who played at Loyola for three years, finished with a season-high 15 points. He made two three-pointers in the fourth quarter.

Taft moves on to play Leuzinger in Thursday’s quarterfinals of the Division I regionals.

-- Eric Sondheimer