Championship Heartbreak: La Cañada Falls in Regional Finals

The Cinderella season of the La Cañada boys basketball team finally came to an end Saturday.

Playing for a chance to get to the state championship, the Spartans came up just a little short in the CIF State Southern Regional Boys Division 3 title game against La Verne Lutheran at USC’s Galen Center, falling 57-47.

“These kids had a run that is as good as any I’ve ever had in 25 years,” La Cañada coach Tom Hofman said. “There’s no question this is the best team in the history of the school. I’m so proud of these kids. We were in the game until the last two minutes. These kids brought the whole town to their feet.”

La Cañada (30-4) gave La Verne Lutheran, a team with four players who have either signed or committed to play at a major university, all it could handle.

The Spartans, sans a single player committed to a major college program, controlled the clock for much of the first half and were able to keep the Trojans from using their size and athletic advantage.

La Verne Lutheran (26-5) made just 9 of 24 shots in the first half. La Canada made 11 of 20 first-half shots.

But the in second half La Verne Lutheran made one major change to limit Spartans’ star Michael McGlashan.

“We practiced a box in one all week and we didn’t pull out until we had to,” La Verne Lutheran coach Eric Cooper Sr. said. “We put Bruce (English) on him. He’s the most athletic kid we have. I just told Bruce deny him when he catches it and takes a dribble.”

As a result, McGlashan was limited to seven points in the second half after scoring 12 in the first half. Of those seven points, five were scored in the final 90 seconds.

“This is one of the toughest teams we’ve faced,” Cooper said of La Cañada. “You’ve got to really think to compete with these guys, otherwise they’ll embarrass you. We talked it about it all week that we were going to have grind it out.”

La Verne Lutheran went up by as many as five in the third quarter, before the Spartans closed to 34-32 going into the final period as Mason Holle hit a short jumper with a second left in the quarter.

Holle’s basket at the 7:16 mark of the fourth quarter tied the score.

But La Verne Lutheran’s 6-foot-9 junior Grant Jarrett began to take over at that point.

Jarrett, who has committed to the University of Arizona, scored 10 of his game-high 22 points in the final period. He also had three of his eight rebounds in the last quarter.

La Verne Lutheran seemed to have pulled away when sophomore point guard Eric Cooper Jr., who is also committed to Arizona, hit a 3-pointer with just under two minutes left to make it 49-40.

But the Spartans fought back. McGlashan hit a pair of free throws with 1:30 left to make it a seven-point game. After a steal, he hit a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 49-45 with 1:25 left.

The Trojans could not respond on their next trip down the floor and La Cañada nearly countered with a transition basket, only to see La Verne Lutheran come up with a big steal that resulted in an easy layup for English, who has signed with Loyola Marymount University.

That basket gave La Verne Lutheran a 51-45 cushion with a minute to play. The Trojans hit four of five free throws in the final minute as La Cañada’s attempts to get back in the game were unsuccessful.

Hofman credited his group of 13 seniors for become one group.

“To be a great coach you have to have great listeners and these kids have listened to everything since they were freshmen,” Hofman said. “They believe in our system, and all year they’ve believed in themselves.”

Matt Faber finished with 14 points, Mason Holle had seven and Dario CiVon had three points. Conner Boyd and Aram Darzibashians each had two points.