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SACRAMENTO — Earlier in the season, the Notre Dame boys basketball team had a stretch of games where it lost five of seven games, including a three-game losing streak.
Coach Matt Sargeant said the team was in search of its identity during the final minutes of games. In basketball, they call that “crunch time.”
“We still don’t know exactly what that looks like yet,” he said in January. “But we’re getting closer.”
When crunch time comes, a team has to ask itself these kinds of questions …
What can the team rely on when it needs to make a play? Who can the team turn to when it needs to win?
The answer is Caleb Foster.
The Duke-bound guard scored a game-high 33 points on 12-of-17 shooting, added six rebounds and six assists to lead Notre Dame to the program’s first CIF State title by topping Livermore Granada 67-58 in the Division I final at the Golden 1 Center Friday night.
Foster’s 33 points broke the CIF State Division I record that had been held by Michael Manning of Oakland’s Castlemont since 1981.
This free throw gives Duke-bound Caleb Foster 33 points and the CIF State Division I final individual scoring record previously held by Michael Manning of Castlemont, Oakland in 1981. pic.twitter.com/xYKlGKrCE5
— Tarek Fattal (@Tarek_Fattal) March 11, 2023
In the CIF State playoffs, Foster scored 21 points in a win over Fairfax (84-68), 28 points in a win over Mira Costa (58-39), 19 points in a win over Mater Dei (81-59), and 28 points in the regional final win over Sierra Canyon.
“I give all the credit to my teammates,” Foster said of his spirited play. “Them and the coaching staff believed in me.”
There was a stretch from the first into the second quarter where Foster scored 10 straight points, including two NBA-range 3-pointers, and tallied 12 of the team’s 15 points which opened up a 30-18 lead and an eventual 39-27 halftime…
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