Borella, Laguna Beach Players Turn Cold in Heat of Moment

Josh Borella offered no excuses. He wasn’t complaining about the rims being too tight or the crowd noise or empty backdrop at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, where the baskets seem to hang in midair.

“I didn’t make the shots,” the Laguna Beach High School junior guard said. “I practice my free throw shooting so much, but they just didn’t go down today. Tomorrow, it could be different. My day will come.”

Borella missed four free throws in the final two minutes and Laguna Beach missed six opportunities to win the Southern Section 2-A division title, falling to St. Joseph of Santa Maria, 70-68, Saturday.

Borella, the team’s best free-throw shooter during the season (78%), typified Laguna Beach’s inability to make key free throws with the game on the line. Laguna Beach made seven of 14 attempts in the fourth quarter after hitting nine of 12 through three quarters.

Borella made his first six foul shots and then couldn’t find the range in the fourth quarter when Laguna Beach let a 57-51 lead slip away. Laguna Beach trailed, 68-65, with 2:06 remaining when Borella went to the line for the first of his seven free-throw attempts before the game ended.

He managed to make three of them. Borella wasn’t the only Artist who missed. John Trevino had an opportunity to put Laguna Beach ahead on a one-and-one chance with 30 seconds remaining and his team trailing, 69-68, but he missed.

Three seconds later, teammate Dain Blanton rebounded a missed shot and was fouled, but he missed both free throw attempts. Still, Laguna Beach had one more chance to win when St. Joseph commited a turnover with 22 seconds remaining.

Borella worked his way near the baseline and appeared to have a high percentage shot. But the ball was knocked loose from his hands before he got the shot off and St. Joseph recovered to seal the victory.

“I thought I was fouled,” Borella said. “The guy (Paul Santana) grabbed my wrist. What can you do when a guy reaches and fouls you and nothing is called? But there’s no tears. There’s always next time and we know we’ll be playing next week.”

Laguna Beach forward Brady Butcher, who scored a season-high 20 points, said the team was loose and the adjustment of playing in the spacious arena “wasn’t so different that it changed your game.”

Said Butcher: “We were all a little nervous coming up here, but we settled down once the game started. I couldn’t believe all the missed free throws. We had our best shooters (Borella, Trevino and Blanton) on the line, and they all missed.

“It was loud. There were times when I couldn’t hear the guys on the team down on the floor. I noticed warming up that the rims were tight, but I didn’t think much about it until we started missing all those free throws.”

Laguna Beach Coach Ed Bowen, who guided the Artists to a championship game 27 years ago, also offered no excuses.

“We had the right guy (Borella) on the line, he just didn’t make the shots,” Bowen said. “The game was ours if we hit the free throws.”