OTHER GAMES

San Bernardino Pacific 70, Santa Ana Mater Dei 69--It took a last-second shot by Pacific center Demond Huff to deny Mater Dei another trip to the Division I-A final.

Mater Dei had taken a 69-68 lead on Steve Henderson’s free throw with 23 seconds left. He missed his second attempt, which Huff rebounded.

The Pirates called timeout to set up a final shot. Guard Chris Smith dribbled until the clock showed less than 10 seconds, drove the lane and forced up a shot that missed everything.

Huff--who scored 15 points and had a game-high nine rebounds despite four fouls--grabbed the ball, spun toward the basket and laid in the game winner as time ran out.

“I saw the ball clean, grabbed it and just put it in,” said the 6-10 Huff, the lone starting senior at Pacific. “I didn’t know how much time was left but I knew it counted.”

The loss, which ended Mater Dei’s season at 21-8, was harder on Coach Gary McKnight than he expected it to be.

“If you had told me before the season that we would have reached the semis I would gladly have taken it,” McKnight said. “But then to get this close. . . .

“And it should not have been this close. I give [Pacific] credit. They played hard and played well. But we made too many turnovers [21] for this kind of game.”

Pacific guard Bobby Tossetti made five three-pointers (in 10 attempts) and scored 17 points.