Basketball Finals: Mission Viejo Can't Contend With OLu's York

The disappointment was written on their faces, spelled out in red eyes and wet cheeks. Mission Viejo had come to the Anaheim Convention Center Arena for the second year in a row—and lost.

Undone by a jitter-infested first quarter and a high school prep star named Gabe York, top-seeded Mission Viejo was defeated by third-seeded Orange Lutheran, 64-58, in the Southern Section Division 1A championship.

"It was strange," said Troy Roelen, Mission Viejo's coach. "I thought having been here—we were loose all week—I thought we had taken it in stride and I do think there were some jitters early on, but I can't go back and change that. You do the best you can and you hope when you're here a second time you eliminate some of that."

Although Mission (27-4) did well to come back from a 22-14 first quarter deficit—the Diablos were down, 14-2, at one point—to take the lead in the early going of the fourth quarter, they didn't have a player like York.

He finished the night with 28 points, and he scored seven of his team's final 15 after Mission took a 50-49 lead on Michael Cramer's three-point basket with 7:04 left in the game.

But York answered with a three-point play, and Lutheran (21-10)—which lost four of its games while York was out with appendicitis—had enough to stave off Mission's comeback hopes.

"Gabe York ... that's the difference between us and them," Roelen said. "He stepped up and made every free throw, he made big shots and tonight's shots just didn't fall for us. He was really good tonight. He's a very good player. There's a reason why he's going to the University of Arizona."

In addition to York's 28, Lutheran got 11 points from Jared Carver and 10 from Darien Williams.

Mission Viejo was led by Cramer's 16 points—he was six of 11 from the field—and Max Redfield's 14 points. Evan Zeller scored 13. Cramer and Redfield were a combined 13 of 26 from the field, but the rest of the team was only 10 of 34.

It's the second year in a row that Mission has lost in the finals. The Diablos lost last season's 2AA championship to Ventura, 56-53, in overtime in a heartbreaker.

They don't know any other way to lose.