El Camino’s Spirits High After Semifinal Loss : JC basketball: Playoff winning streak salvaged the Warriors’ season. Now they’re looking to next year.

The phrase coming out of Ron McClurkin’s mouth Friday night had a familiar ring to it.

For the second year in a row, his El Camino basketball team lost in the state semifinals, and the coach said simply: “We’ll be back. El Camino will be back next year.”

Last season the Warriors were eliminated by Chabot, which made its second consecutive appearance in the state finals Saturday.

On Friday, El Camino lost, 81-70, to a powerful Rancho Santiago club that has an impressive 31-3 mark.

Ironically, the two teams that beat Rancho Santiago this year (Santa Monica and Cypress), were upset by El Camino in the playoffs.

The Warriors defeated Santa Monica, 81-79, in the opening round. Then they defeated Cypress, a two-time winner over Rancho Santiago, in the third round, 80-71.

The Loss to Rancho Santiago was disappointing but not tragic for an El Camino team that failed to at least share the South Coast Conference title for the first time since joining the league five years ago.

The Warriors surprised many by finishing in a three-way tie for third in the five-member conference. They entered league play with a 15-5 mark and were favored to contest the title with Cerritos, the eventual champion.

Instead, the conference schedule proved a nightmare for El Camino, whose basketball teams had won three junior college state titles in the 1980s under former Coach Paul Landreaux.

In the league opener Jan. 6, El Camino suffered a stunning loss to Mt. San Antonio College, the SCC’s worst team at the time.

The Warriors dropped out of the state’s top 20 after losing to Mt. SAC a second time Jan. 27. They never crawled back into the state rankings.

“There were times,” McClurkin said, “when we just couldn’t suck it up and do it. We ran into a rough spot.”

But El Camino got going again on the road to the state finals. The Warriors ripped four higher-ranked teams in the playoffs to turn around what had appeared to be a disappointing season and earn a spot in the Final Eight Tournament at UC Irvine’s Bren Events Center.

“We knew it was going to be a tough game because we knew El Camino had a very tough road to get here,” Rancho Santiago Coach Dana Pagett said after his team’s victory. “And it turned out that we had a lot of cause for concern.”

The Warriors, seeded 23rd in the playoffs by virtue of their conference finish, had defeated No. 10 Santa Monica, No. 7 L.A. City and No. 2 Cypress, all on the road.

“We finally came together as a team,” reflected guard Frank Beatty after Friday’s loss. “Everybody woke up for the playoffs, ‘cause everybody was asleep during league.”

McClurkin, in his second year as interim head coach, said the best part of his two seasons at the helm was this year’s playoffs.

“We had good togetherness,” he said. “We played real well as a group. I mean just to be here (in the state Final Eight Tournament) is great.”

The Warriors finished with a 24-11 record, including a 4-1 post-season mark against favored teams.

Sophomore Larry Lockley led El Camino’s balanced scoring attack throughout the season. The 6-foot-4 guard averaged 18.8 points in the playoffs. Sophomore forwards David Keeter and Steve Leary were also impressive during the post-season with 14.0 averages.

“It wasn’t a bad season,” McClurkin said after the loss to Rancho Santiago. “We got 24 wins. We wanted to get 20, and we ended up with 24. That’s not bad.”