Laguna Beach Tripped Up at the Line : 2-A boys’ final: Artists miss five free throws, including front ends of three one-and-ones, in final minutes of 70-68 loss to St. Joseph High.

St. Joseph High School won its first Southern Section 2-A boys’ basketball championship Saturday at the free-throw line.

At Laguna Beach’s free-throw line.

Roger Cavazos scored 20 of his game-high 32 points in the second half as St. Joseph of Santa Maria rallied from a 14-point deficit to beat Laguna Beach, 70-68, at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.

But the biggest factor late in the game was Laguna Beach’s inability to make free throws. The Artists missed five free throws, including the front end of three one-and-ones, in the final 1 minute 29 seconds.

Laguna Beach also missed two other opportunities to win the game. Guard Josh Borella lost the ball out of bounds on a baseline drive with five seconds left and center Dain Blanton missed a running 22-footer at the buzzer.

“I thought in the last two minutes the game was ours,” Laguna Beach Coach Ed Bowen said. “All we had to do was win it at the free-throw line.”

Instead, St. Joseph, which lost four of its first six games this season, improved to 20-7. Laguna Beach, making its first championship game appearance since 1963, finished at 22-6.

“After that 2-4 start I thought we were in for a long season,” St. Joseph Coach Richard King said. “But things came together. We scored 100 in four of our last six games. The closer we got to the championship, the better we played.”

St. Joseph led, 69-67, after Cavazos’ free throw with 1:28 left.

Borella, who scored 18 of his team-high 25 points in the first half, missed the front end of a one-and-one with 1:17 left to start the Artists’ struggle from the line.

Borella, a 78% foul shooter, made only two of five free throws in the last 1:29.

Borella made the first of two free throws with 50 seconds left to cut the deficit to 69-68. The Artists had two chances to tie and take the lead, but John Trevino missed the front end of a one-and-one and Blanton missed two free throws in the final 30 seconds.

The Artists had made nine of 12 free throws before the fourth quarter, but made only seven of 14 thereafter.

Borella had one last chance to make up for his poor foul shooting. He drove to the baseline with five seconds left, but lost the ball out of bounds.

Borella said he thought he was fouled by St. Joseph’s Paul Santana, who had reached around him and knocked the ball free.

“He slapped the ball and I thought he got my wrist, too,” Borella said.

Bowen, who said he was shielded from the play, said he was surprised Borella lost the ball.

“Josh is probably our best ballhandler,” Bowen said. “He normally doesn’t lose the ball like that.”

St. Joseph’s Spencer MacCuish was fouled on the in-bounds play and made the front end of a one-and-one to push the lead to 70-68. Blanton’s desperation shot at the buzzer bounced off the backboard without touching the rim.

Laguna Beach led, 39-32, at halftime and had a 53-39 lead with 4:15 left in the third quarter.

Then Cavazos took over.

He scored seven points to spark a 12-4 run and cut the deficit to 57-51 at the end of the third quarter. He pulled down four of his game-high 14 rebounds in the quarter. Ten of his rebounds were on the offensive end and St. Joseph outrebounded Laguna Beach, 52-37.

“Cavazos did his job,” Bowen said. “We lost it because we were a little tired and we didn’t hit our free throws. I’m disappointed that our free throws didn’t go down, but I’m not disappointed in the way we played.”

St. Joseph had scored more than 100 points in two of its previous three playoff games using a pressing defense and a running offense patterned after Loyola Marymount’s.

“Their quickness wasn’t there and their 100-point press wasn’t there,” Bowen said. “Their press didn’t hurt us a lick.”

Laguna Beach committed only 11 turnovers to St. Joseph’s 20.

“I read where St. Joseph was going to blow us out with (its) press,” Bowen said. “I laughed. We beat the devil out of their press.”