Capistrano Valley Stages Own Celebration : I-AA boys: Cougars beat Lynwood, a team that had beaten them three months ago, to win title.

Emotions ran wild for Capistrano Valley after its 69-51 victory over Lynwood in the Southern Section I-AA boys’ championship game.

It was a moment of sweet satisfaction for David Sedgwick, as he was carried by nearly the entire Cougar team from center court.

There was a feeling greatness for Eric Seiffert as he slapped hands with Steve Ransom, his partner in layups.

Even Tom Airey, the sharp-shooting guard who went dull Saturday night, couldn’t contain himself, hobbling on his bad ankle to embrace Coach Mark Thornton.

In fact, the only ones excluded from this get-happy hug-fest was Lynwood. The Knights remained several minutes after the Los Angeles Sports Arena had been cleared out, wondering what had happened.

For four quarters, they had been pushed around by Capistrano Valley, a team they had beaten in overtime only three months ago. But this time, the Cougars left nothing to chance.

“We just worked our butts off,” Ransom said.

The Cougars (28-3) certainly did on defense. They contested every shot and it was no contest.

Lynwood (26-5) made only 18 of 69 shots. The Knights missed jump shots and layups, sometimes three or four at a time.

“Our plan was to not let them go over the top,” Thornton said. “We wanted to keep them from getting anything easy.”

That was accomplished, especially on Jamal Lawrence, the Knights’ leading scorer.

Lawrence, who came into the game averaging 20.1 points, was dogged all over the court by Sedgwick. As a result, Lawrence made only four of 21 shots and missed 10 of 11 three-point attempts.

He finished with 12 points.

“I just got on him and stayed on him,” Sedgwick said. “Every time he went up for a shot, I got a hand in his face.”

Meanwhile, Lynwood’s defensive plan was simple: Stop Airey.

The senior guard came into the game averaging 15.4 points and had made 127 three-point field goals. He made only two of nine shots--both three pointers--to finish with six points before leaving the game with 4 minutes 36 seconds left with a sprained ankle.

But accomplishing the game plan didn’t bring positive results. The Knights played a game of “try to beat us” with the other Cougars, and that’s just what happened.

Ransom and Seiffert found easy pickings, not to mention layups, down the middle. Ransom scored 16 points and Seiffert 15, mostly on quick cuts down the lane.

Corey Kost scored 12 and Sedgwick 10, despite being worn out by his defensive effort.

“They were trying to take Tom away, so we took it to them,” Seiffert said. “Everything was open down the middle. Oh gosh, everything.”

Said Thornton: “We’ve done that to every team that has keyed on Tom. We can take any team in the hole one-on-one.”

Capistrano Valley went into halftime leading, 32-22. But the Cougars could have been further ahead had they not missed nine of 15 free-throw attempts.

The half was dominated by streaks and the Cougars struck first. They scored the first six points and led, 20-4, with just under a minute left in the first half.

The Knights missed their first eight shots and were three of 17 in the quarter. They found a brief moment of consistency in the second quarter and went on a 16-6 run to close the gap to 26-20.

Capistrano Valley put the game away in the third quarter with a 12-2 run. The Cougars led, 55-41, going into the third quarter and increased that lead to 66-46 with four minutes left.

From then on, the it was a giant celebration.