Pandemonium ensued at Canyon High School Friday night after the boys’ basketball team’s CIF Southern Section Division 2A semifinal against Oak Park.
With just seconds remaining in the contest, senior Sean Hernandez hit two free throws to extend the Canyon Cowboys’ lead over the Eagles to seven. That followed junior Isaac Yuhico also hitting two free throws to make it a two-possession game.
A desperate Oak Park heave at the buzzer fell short, but the result had already been decided — the Cowboys were headed to the CIF championship game for the first time in program history after a 55-48 win.
“It feels amazing,” Yuhico said. “I mean, it’s never been done before in the history of the school, so it’s awesome.”
The Canyon High gym was loud all night, but never louder than when the student section stormed the court to celebrate with the players.
“It’s just an amazing experience,” Yuhico said. “I mean, that’s never happened before, so it was just awesome to see the whole school coming out and jumping with us and supporting us.”
Yuhico had 16 points on the night, just behind senior Eric Kubel’s game-high 22 points. Both players hit clutch 3-pointers throughout the contest, with the crowd going into a frenzy after each one.
Possibly the two biggest shots from the duo both came in the fourth quarter. Yuhico hit a three at the midway point of the final frame to put the Cowboys up by one, and then Kubel hit one with two minutes to go that put them up by four.
“It’s all God,” Kubel said. “I don’t know how I do it. It’s all God.”
Canyon advances to face the St. Bonaventure Seraphs in the championship game, set to be held on Friday at 8 p.m. at Azusa Pacific University. The Seraphs topped Irvine in the other semifinal on Friday, 66-60.
All four semifinal teams had already secured berths in the state tournament.
Friday’s game between Canyon and Oak Park saw both teams come out firing.
But a 15-15 game after the first quarter quickly swung the way of the Eagles, who led at the half, 29-23, after leading by 10 at one point in the second.
Canyon head coach Ali Monfared said the halftime talk revolved around defense, and the Cowboys came out in a zone defense, pressing ball handlers and denying everything inside.
That led to a 7-0 run in favor of Canyon as the Cowboys retook the lead by one.
After that, the game continued to swing until the final two minutes, when Canyon shut the door on the Eagles’ comeback attempt.
Monfared credited each one of his players for playing their roles, ones that each one has written down on a piece of paper in the Canyon locker room.
“We always talk about being a superstar in your role,” Monfared said. “And in my opinion, every basketball player in the world, including Michael Jordan, even though he’s a star, has a role, and you have to be a superstar in your role. And I think that’s what makes us special. You know, a lot of teams think that we’re just a one-man show, and we have a really good guy in Eric, but we have a really good team, and no one-man team would get to the CIF finals.”
Oak Park junior Jadon Holmes led the Eagles with 14 points while junior Artin Lajevardi had nine and senior Mateo Nicolas had eight.
The Eagles shot over 60% from the field in the first half, but less than 40% in the second half.
“We talked about getting turkeys in our shell defense, which is three stops in a row,” Monfared said. “And if you get eight turkeys, a college stat was a 96% chance to win. So, I need to go watch the film, but I would imagine we got several turkeys in that second half.”
The Cowboys were in foul trouble for much of the second half as seniors Solomon Sims and Chigo Osuji, both key to Canyon’s defensive stops, had three fouls in the third quarter. Both eventually fouled out, but senior Daniel Gonzalez stepped in to grab a steal in the final seconds before Hernandez iced the game from the charity stripe.
“The kid’s such a baller, and I’m so proud of him for coming in and making a big defensive play,” Monfared said.
Kubel said the third quarter has been the Cowboys’ all season, and they showed that is the case on Friday by winning it, 14-10. They rode that to dismantle the Eagles in the fourth quarter, 18-9.
“Third quarter is our quarter,” Kubel said. “We love to flip the momentum going out of halftime.”
Celebrations were in order for the Cowboys following Friday’s historic victory. But the focus now turns to the title game as Canyon seeks to not just play in a title game for the first time, but win one.
Monfared channeled the late Kobe Bryant as he looks forward to coaching his team up for the next week.
“Job’s not done,” Monfared said, referencing the famous line Bryant uttered after the L.A. Lakers took a 2-0 series lead in the 2009 NBA Finals, and went on to beat the Orlando Magic in the series, 4-1. “We’ll enjoy it tonight. We’ll get back to work.”
To purchase tickets for Friday’s championship game ($24.10 for general admission, $12.55 for students with ID and children up to 13), go to tinyurl.com/ce2y99hh. Cash sales will not be accepted at the venue.
