Crescenta Valley’s Remarkable Run Ends : Division I boys: Falcons no match for Mater Dei, 85-54, but Goffredo expresses only admiration for his players.

Crescenta Valley basketball Coach John Goffredo couldn’t have been more pleased with his team’s performance. His Falcons played hard. They hustled and didn’t quit until the final buzzer.

Unfortunately for the Falcons, it was still only good enough for an 85-54 loss to powerful Mater Dei in the first round of the Southern California regionals Tuesday night at UC Irvine’s Bren Center.

“We played well, as hard as we can play,” said Goffredo. “We were up against an excellent team. We have nothing to be embarrassed about. We battled.”

Thus ended an emotional season for Crescenta Valley (19-11) that included a surprising trip to the Southern Section I-AA final before losing to Long Beach Poly last Saturday.

Mater Dei (32-0), shooting 58% from the field, was in a foul mood after beating Huntington Beach Edison by only six points, 65-59, in the I-A final Saturday in winning its ninth Southern Section championship in 12 seasons.

The Monarchs began asserting their supremacy midway through the first quarter with highly touted freshman forward Schea Cotton scoring 10 points for a 21-13 Monarch lead. Crescenta Valley could rarely get an open shot inside the three-point line and hit on only five of 17 field-goal attempts in the first quarter.

Cotton led all scorers with 29 points and added 15 rebounds. Teammate Shaun Jackson pulled down 16 rebounds.

Mater Dei went on a 10-2 run at the start of the second quarter, but Crescenta Valley fought back and trailed, 38-28, on Mike Crowder’s basket with 36 seconds to play in the first half. But the Falcons suffered a blow when center Blake Jacobson picked up his fourth foul in the final seconds.

The Falcons were getting battered on the backboards already when Jacobson fouled out with 7:09 left in the third quarter.

“Their overall rebounding makes them as good as they are. They have a lot of talented players,” Goffredo said.

With Jacobson sidelined, the Monarchs streaked to a 52-32 lead with 4:18 remaining, but the Falcons put on an 8-2 run and cut the gap to 54-40 on Brock Jacobsen’s bank shot with 1:18 remaining in the third quarter.

But Cotton put on another impressive display in the fourth quarter, making a spectacular two-hand reverse slam for a 68-45 lead with 4:30 left. Cotton received a technical for hanging on the rim, but the play was an exclamation point for the Monarchs.

Jacobsen led Crescenta Valley with 18 points and Richard O’Neill added 17, despite making only four of 15 shots from the field.

Mater Dei was aided by Clay McKnight with 17 points and Mile Simon and Shaun Jackson with 12 apiece.