SOUTHERN SECTION I-AA BOYS’ BASKETBALL : Capistrano Valley Tops Lynwood, 69-51

During the regular season, Lynwood High earned the No.1 rating for the Southern Section I-AA Division playoffs by playing well in big games.

However, the Knights picked the wrong night to play one of their worst games of the season Saturday, as Capistrano Valley crushed Lynwood, 69-51, for its second Southern Section boys’ basketball title in four years before a crowd of 7,790 at the Sports Arena.

Behind Steve Ransom’s 16 points and Eric Seiffert’s 12, second-seeded Capistrano Valley dominated the cold-shooting Knights to avenge an early-season loss.

Capistrano Valley (28-3), which earned a berth in the Southern Regional of the State playoffs, lost in overtime to Lynwood, 57-52, in December.

Lynwood (25-6) never got its high-scoring offense on track because of Capistrano Valley’s aggressive man-to-man defense. The Knights made only 18 of 69 shots.

“Our shot selection wasn’t the best,” Lynwood Coach Bill Lee said. “We were very impatient on offense, and that reflected our shooting percentage.”

Lynwood did a good job defensively on Capistrano Valley’s Tom Airey, who made 127 three-point baskets this season but scored only six points Saturday. But the Knights were not able to stop the rest of the Cougars. Capistrano Valley made 28 of 61 shots.

“They stuck to Airey like glue, and that opened things up for the rest of the team,” David Sedgwick said. “People think that our team is only Airey, but that is not true and the team showed that tonight.”

Lynwood opened the game by missing its first eight shots and only made three of 17 in the first quarter in falling behind, 20-8.

Lynwood closed within 26-20 early in the second quarter, but its shooting did not improve much. Capistrano Valley led, 32-22, at halftime.

In the second half, Capistrano Valley’s inside strength was too much for Lynwood. The Knights never closed within 10 in the final 12 minutes.

“Our big guys just dominated them inside with them keying on Airey,” Capistrano Valley Coach Mark Thornton said.

One factor for this dominance was that Lynwood’s standout center Nathan Ware was slowed because of an ankle injury he suffered earlier in the playoffs. He finished with six points and 11 rebounds.

Jamal Lawrence led Lynwood with 12 points.