A sixth-man mentality

Low maintenance. High performance.

That sums up the senior season of Chace Stanback of Los Angeles Fairfax.

He was, by a large margin, the most talented player on the floor for the Lions, right through their Division I state championship victory. Yet, unlike many blue-chip athletes, Stanback required the least amount of coddling and attention from his coach.

“His demeanor was as if he was the sixth man,” Fairfax Coach Harvey Kitani said.

Standing 6 feet 8 and having signed with UCLA, the rangy forward averaged 25.8 points and 11.9 rebounds against a list of opponents that included Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill Academy and Elizabeth (N.J.) St. Patrick, the top two teams in the nation, according to USA Today. Kitani said the Lions’ schedule was among the toughest in his 26 seasons at the school.

“Chace really led the team early in the year,” Kitani said. “Our younger players had to learn and adjust.”

Stanback, selected The Times’ boys’ basketball player of the year, said his most memorable performance came in the last of four consecutive victories over Western League rival Westchester. He produced 35 points and 11 rebounds in the Southern California Regional championship game at UCLA.

“The night before I was thinking about it the whole time,” Stanback said of playing at Pauley Pavilion, his future college home. “I knew I had to make it a memorable game.”

Stanback’s final night in a Fairfax uniform, in the state championship game against Oakland McClymonds at Arco Arena in Sacramento, proved to be just as memorable but in a different way. Stanback scored a season-low 10 points, but led a defensive effort that gave up only 29 points, equaling the lowest modern-era total at the state finals.

“His shot wasn’t dropping, but he was out there rebounding and blocking shots and defending,” Kitani said. “Things that helped us win.”

Afterward, Stanback and his teammates, who included fellow seniors Rod Singleton, Ja’Shon Hampton, Malcolm Campbell and Tedros Worku, piled into one of their rooms at a downtown Sacramento hotel and soaked in their final trip together. A season that began with an unceremonious 2-2 record ended with Stanback’s second state title of his four-year prep career.

“I’m going to remember all the ups and downs we had this season,” Stanback said. “How we fought through adversity all the way to winning the state championship.”

Kitani will probably remember many of the NBA-range three-pointers and thunderous dunks produced by Stanback, but what he’ll look back on most vividly will be Stanback’s consistency, from the way he readied himself for practice to the way he released his jump shot

“As the season went on, he improved just as much as the other players,” Kitani said.

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dan.arritt@latimes.com