Local Hoopsters Continue in State Tournament

After making strong runs in the playoffs, Both the Damien and La Verne Lutheran boys’ and Bonita girls’ basketball teams found themselves continuing on in the post season as the state tournament began this week.

Despite losing the Divisional crown in successive seasons to Serra High school, La Verne Lutheran qualified for another State tournament, which is nothing new for them as it seeks its third state crown in the past four years.  The Trojans won it all in 2010 and 2011, but then was ousted in the semifinals of the southern regional last season.

But then again, this is a different team, with only two returning players from the team who won the last two state titles and a head coach who was then an assistant to Eric Cooper who went to coach at St Anthony.

Under Brandon Lee, the Trojans rolled, going on an 18 game winning streak to upset top seeded Bishop Montgomery in the CIF semifinals before ultimately falling to Serra last Saturday afternoon.

Wednesday night, Lutheran showed they came to play, scoring an 85-42 victory over Tollhouse Sierra.

"Tonight wasn't really about the other team," senior Skylar Williams said. "It was about us and how aggressive we would come out. We want to go all the way."

The Trojans hosts Pacific Hills Saturday night in the second round.  Tip off is at 7 pm.

Damien, after winning its first CIF divisional title this past weekend made its debut in its first state tournament game Wednesday night with a thrilling 74-72 overtime victory over Mission Oak.

 Leading 50-36 with six minutes remaining, the Spartans allowed Mission Oak to get back into the game with an 11-0 run to trim the score to 50-47.  Mission Oak’s Blake Shannon sank a 3-pointer at the buzzer to tie the game at 61-61 to send the game into overtime.  Damien’s sophomore Jeremy Hemsley returned the favor by hitting the game-winning 3-pointer.

"It was a great high school basketball game," Damien head coach Matt Dunn said. "We didn't finish the fourth quarter very well or the overtime very well, but sometimes you have a great player that bails you out, and that's exactly what Jeremy did."

Damien travels to second seed Chaminade Saturday night for a second round match up.  Tipoff is at 7pm.

Bonita’s stay in the state tournament was short-lived as the Bearcats fell to La Costa Canyon 66-43 Wednesday evening.

Behind 6 foot 5 Savannah Irwin, La Costa canyon was just too much for the Bearcats and Nikki Wheatley as the Mavericks took an early 14-1 lead and never looked back.

"They did a good job of packing it inside. They were ready for my drive," said Wheatley, who finished with a game-high 20 points, nine rebounds and five steals.

Bonita finished the season at 25-7.