ORANGE – Pacifica Christian came out of a timeout with 4.6 seconds remaining and holding a one-point lead expecting Orange Lutheran to have Zion Paleo take the last shot.
The Lancers did work the ball to Paleo. He went up for a deep 3-point jumper.
Pacifica Christian’s EJ Spillman went up with him and blocked the shot to secure the Tritons’ 52-51 win in the CIF Southern California Regional Division II championship game Tuesday at Orange Lutheran High.
Pacifica Christian (27-9) will play San Joaquin Memorial of Fresno (25-9) in the CIF State championship game Saturday at 4 p.m. in Sacramento at Golden 1 Center, home of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings.
San Joaquin Memorial defeated Vanden 67-61 in overtime in the Northern California Regional final Tuesday.
It was the first regional final for both teams. Orange Lutheran finished the season 23-12.
Tritons sophomore Logan Stewart came off of the bench to score a team-high 15 points with seven rebounds. Spillman and Alex Stewart scored 10 points each for Pacifica Christian.
Orange Lutheran’s Cannon Popper scored 14 points. Paleo scored 11 points.
With nine seconds left in the game Spillman missed his first free throw of a one-and-one opportunity. Orange Lutheran’s Andrew Nagy got the rebound, the Lancers hustled to the front court and Orange Lutheran coach Daniel Dunbar called time out with the 4.6 on the clock.
Before the ball was inbounded from the sideline opposite the Orange Lutheran bench both teams called time out, Pacifica Christian doing so twice, as the teams tried to anticipate the strategy of the opponent.
“We were anticipating some flip or switch somewhere for Paleo,” Pacifica Christian coach Jeff Berokoff said. “And we put EJ on him. We were going to switch it and get big and tall and make him shoot over it and it worked.”
Spillman is 6-foot-4, Paleo 6-2.
Pacifica Christian took a 41-36 lead into the fourth quarter. Potter quickly made a 3-pointer to make it 41-39 and the Lancers tied it…
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