Falcons felled in final at home

LA CRESCENTA — No more than 10 minutes after the Crescenta Valley High boys’ basketball team fell in the championship game of the Falcon Classic on Friday night, Falcons Coach Shawn Zargarian duly listed the reasons as to why his squad fell short.

He made it brief and to the point.

“No. 1, you can’t play catch up against a good team,” Zargarian said after the Falcons suffered a 78-69 loss to Chatsworth. “You can’t come out flat to start the second half and you’ve got to get defensive stops, which we couldn’t get done.”

Chatsworth (7-1) held a 51-47 lead entering the fourth quarter and increased the lead to 67-51 just past the midway point of the final stanza. The Chancellors, who won their seventh straight game, limited the Falcons (3-1) to four points in that stretch. The Falcons, who posted tournament victories against South Pasadena, Sun Valley and Antelope Valley, made a late run that fell short.

The Falcons received 28 points and 14 rebounds from junior center Christian Misi and 31 points from sophomore guard Cole Currie. Both were named to the all-tournament team.

Misi finished with 22 first-half points and Currie notched 26 in the second half.

While the Falcons relied on their duo for a majority of the points, the Chancellors had four players score at least 14 points.

Chatsworth got 15 points from forward Derrick Hector, who was selected the tournament’s most valuable player. They also received 19 points from forward Jesse Monje, 16 from forward Terrell Funches and 14 from forward Jesse Hernandez. Monje and Funches also earned all-tournament accolades.

“We talk about how we have seven guys who can get 20 points,” Chatsworth Coach Scott Switalla said. “We made some adjustments on Misi in the second half and we had to be aware of Cole.

“CV’s got a great program and they have a great coach in Shawn. We knew that CV wasn’t going to beat themselves.”