Boys’ basketball: Loyola dominates in 1A final

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

There was sure plenty of trash talk in the week leading up to the Southern Section Division 1A championship game between Los Angeles Loyola and Mission Viejo Capistrano Valley, but the Cubs have gotten the last word.

Loyola let its play do the talking on its way to a 74-58 victory in the fourth and last game of the day session on ‘Championship Saturday’ at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Joe Stein had 23 points and Julian Harrell added 18 points and 10 rebounds for top-seeded Loyola (24-5), who led from start to finish and grew its lead to as large as 22 points in a dominating performance.

Nick Thomas had 19 points and Stephen Short added 16 for the third-seeded Cougars (24-7), who made a desperate fourth-quarter comeback, pulling to within 58-49 with 4:10 left on back-to-back baskets by Aleks Lipovic. However, the Cubs responded with a 7-2 run to build an insurmountable advantage.

The night session begins at 6 p.m. with the Division 1AA showdown pitting top-seeded Long Beach Poly (28-1) against third-seeded Corona Centennial (27-3) and concludes with the Division 2A final between fifth-seeded Lakewood Mayfair (25-5) and seventh-seeded Cerritos Gahr (23-7).

-- Steve Galluzzo