Santa Clara Falls to Verbum Dei : High school basketball: Miller scores 32 as the Eagles win their first championship since 1979. Cantrell has 37 for Santa Clara.

After Verbum Dei High defeated Santa Clara, 71-65, and made the customary dog pile at center court Friday night, two very good basketball teams lined up to receive team awards.

The Southern Section Division IV-A championship game, if nothing else, is a celebration of months of hard work and a great team effort.

But the concept of team played a secondary role in this game at UC Irvine’s Bren Events Center. Santa Clara’s Damian Cantrell scored a career-high 37 points. Verbum Dei’s Andre Miller finished with 32 and 10 rebounds.

Cantrell and Miller, both of whom will be playing in college next year, at times appeared to be playing one-on-one in a dim, musty gym. They slapped hands before the game. They burned each other with moves. They altered each other’s shots. Each player was oblivious to the noisy crowd but fully aware he had to contain his man for his team to have a chance.

“He was blowing by me in the first half,” said Cantrell, who saw Miller explode for 24 points while making nine of 13 shots, including four three-pointers.

Miller was a dribbling, jumping, smirking, showboating sight to see.

The Eagles (24-2) led at halftime, 44-34.

But Cantrell, a poker-faced hustler, answered the bell in the second half with 21 of his 37.

Cantrell buried a three-pointer from the perimeter, then dusted Miller with a spin move and a bank shot to pull the Saints (19-8) to within a point. Then Cantrell hit a running layup with five minutes to play to give Santa Clara a 59-58 lead.

“He took it to me,” Miller said. “He wasn’t afraid to play. Most guys back down.”

But then Miller stepped up. With the Saints leading, 61-59, the 6-foot-2 senior drove for a layup that gave Verbum Dei a 62-61 lead, one it wouldn’t relinquish.

Fast-break layups by Deon Williams (12 points) and Jamal Cobb (17 points) increased the lead to 66-61 with two minutes to play. Santa Clara hurt its cause when Jess Pena (10 points) missed a finger roll and Damien Smith botched an open layup.

But the officials also missed, when Miller apparently palmed the ball with 1:56 to play. Verbum Dei didn’t score on the possession but took 57 seconds off the clock, thanks to the non-call.

“We didn’t get some breaks on some calls when we should have while we were trying to play catch-up,” said Santa Clara Coach Lou Cvijanovich, whose record in section championship games fell to 13-3.

“We had 20 field goals, they had 20 field goals. So it went to the free-throw line. Where else would (the difference) be?”

Santa Clara attempted only nine free throws, making seven. The Eagles were 13 of 19. The Saints held Verbum Dei to 29% shooting from the field in the second half after the Eagles shot 52% before the intermission.

Said Cvijanovich: “I know when we were down by 10, a lot of people in the grandstands thought we were finished.”

Santa Clara is not finished. It has an automatic berth in the Southern California regional, which starts Tuesday.