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Boys’ Basketball: CdM advances to final

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The turning point in the Corona del Mar High boys’ basketball season came on Jan. 3, when the team played without its two big men. The game marked the Sea Kings’ first in the New Year, and Matt Ctvrtlik was one of those players missing.

A club volleyball tournament in Anaheim prevented Ctvrtlik from playing with his high school basketball team at a showcase event in San Juan Capistrano. Coach Ryan Schachter was furious, and after CdM lost to Santa Barbara San Marcos, he talked about disciplining Ctvrtlik and Ryan Moss, who missed the game as well because he and Ctvrtlik were on the same club volleyball team.

When Ctvrtlik and Moss joined the basketball team the following week, Schachter left it up to three seniors whether Ctvrtlik and Moss should sit out the next contest for their actions. Bo St. Geme, Ryan Stone and Kevin Fults all agreed that the two should play. They didn’t question Ctvrtlik or Moss’ commitment to the team, and that meant a lot to them. While CdM lost its next game at Edison, it was the beginning of something special.

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“It’s just faith in each other,” Ctvrtlik said is what came out of an awkward situation.

The team welcomed Ctvrtlik and Moss with open arms. Since that setback to Edison, CdM hasn’t lost. Ctvrtlik has been instrumental in the Sea Kings’ run the last seven weeks.

The Sea Kings have made it to the CIF Southern Section Division 3A finals, and Ctvrtlik got them there. The 6-foot-5 junior came off the bench and finished with a career-high 24 points and six rebounds, lifting No. 2-seeded CdM to a 57-50 semifinal win at home against No. 3 Hemet Tahquitz on Friday.

Ctvrtlik has been the best player for the Sea Kings during the postseason, averaging 14.5 points. Every game, he gets better and better.

For a volleyball player who sets up a team’s offense, Ctvrtlik sure killed any hope Tahquitz (25-5) had of reaching its first section final in school history. Ctvrtlik recorded 13 points in the fourth quarter, most of them coming at the free-throw line, where he converted 10 of 12 attempts.

Ctvrtlik made almost everything, and his three-point shooting (four of six) was just as huge in CdM (24-6) advancing to the section finals next week to play top-seeded Beverly Hills (25-4). The Sea Kings, who are on a 15-game winning streak, will make their 10th section finals appearance in the program’s history, and first since the 2006-07 season.

Schachter can thank Ctvrtlik, St. Geme and Sam Kobrine for helping him get the chance to coach in his second section championship game. If those three continue to knock down the three the way they did against Tahquitz, Schachter has a legitimate shot to lead CdM to a second section crown during his nine seasons in charge.

Ctvrtlik led everyone with four threes, and Kobrine and St. Geme added three apiece. Between the three of them, they went 10 of 19 from behind the arc. The hot three-point shooting amounted to more than half of CdM’s points.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve shot lights out,” Schachter said.

Even when CdM missed a three with a couple of seconds left in the opening quarter, there was Fults grabbing the offensive rebound, and at the buzzer, his putback gave CdM a 15-11 lead and the momentum.

The three-point shot continued to fall for CdM in the second quarter, going four of eight. Tahquitz somehow decided to stay in a 2-3 zone, baiting CdM to shoot. The Sea Kings carved the defense up. Kobrine nailed a three 1 1/2 minutes into the second quarter, and St. Geme added another. Then Ctvrtlik hit two threes down the stretch, and he drove toward the baseline, making a difficult layup before time expired in the first half. The Sea Kings went into the break with a 30-18 lead, making seven of 14 threes and shooting 52.3% from the field.

Kobrine began the third quarter the same way he did the previous two quarters by draining a three. There wasn’t much scoring in the third, each team producing six points apiece. The Sea Kings slowed down the Titans, who went into the night averaging 63 points per game. They played mostly man-to-man defense, limiting 6-8 center Nick Pete’s touches inside by fronting him with Moss, a 6-7 senior and Fults, a 6-3 senior.

Pete, a senior bound for Southern Utah University, only had two of his 10 points through the first three quarters, and Tahquitz trailed, 36-24, going into the fourth. The Titans got within 41-34 after back-to-back baskets in the paint by Pete, who dunked one with 5:22 left. Tahquitz, still trailing by seven, tried to go inside to Pete again, but Ctvrtlik got a hand on the ball, deflecting it toward Kobrine. Right away, the Titans fouled Kobrine, sending him to the free-throw line for a one-and-one situation midway through the fourth. The junior came through, converting both free throws to give him 11 points.

Sixty-eight seconds later, CdM pushed the lead to 45-34. Moss gave St. Geme a screen, bringing Pete toward St. Geme and leaving Moss wide open, and St. Geme found Moss, who rolled to the basket for a layup with 2:59 to go.

The rest of the way, St. Geme, who finished with 13 points, and Ctvrtlik went to the charity stripe. St. Geme made four of his six foul shots, and Ctvrtlik was 10 of 12. The Titans fouled the wrong players, CdM’s best free-throw shooters, and the team wound up making 16 of 21 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter to put the game away.

Getting to the section finals meant a lot to the team. Schachter thanked the Open Division for selecting the top three Division 3A teams, Los Angeles Cathedral, Mission Hills Alemany and Montebello Cantwell-Sacred Heart, for the elite playoff division.

“You never expect to get [to the finals],” Schachter said. “You think you have a chance. We felt like we had as good as shot as anyone.”

St. Geme wants to win his first section title in basketball. He won three with the CdM football team. He was on the basketball team that missed qualifying for the finals two seasons ago, losing at home to La Verne Damien.

The semifinals haven’t been kind to Ctvrtlik, Moss, Fults or Kobrine, who all play volleyball at CdM as well. The CdM volleyball team was ousted in the semis at Los Angeles Loyola last season.

“[We were] so close [in volleyball],” Ctvrtlik said. “It’s kind of ironic being that it’s my first year on [the] varsity [basketball team] and we’ve made it this far, and I’ve been on varsity volleyball for a couple of years and we haven’t made it. This was our goal all along and we made it. We got one more week, one more game.”

CIF Southern Section Division 3A playoffs

Semifinals

Corona del Mar 57, Tahquitz 50

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Tahquitz 11 – 7 – 6 – 26 — 50

CdM 15 – 15 – 6 – 21 — 57

T – J. Williams 17, Pete 10, Porter 10, Davis 6, Sabb 4, Aldana 3.

3-pt. goals – Porter 2, Davis 2, Aldana 1.

Fouled out – None.

Technicals – None.

CdM – Ctvrtlik 24, St. Geme 13, Kobrine 11, Fults 4, Moss 4, Stone 1.

3-pt. goals – Ctvrtlik 4, Kobrine 3, St. Geme 3.

Fouled out – None.

Technicals – None.

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