Boys Basketball: Pasadena reaches the promise land, will take on Eisenhower on Saturday at Honda Center.

CIF-SOUTHERN SECTION PLAYOFFS
DIVISION 2A CHAMPIONSHIP
SATURDAY, 12:30 P.M.
AT HONDA CENTER
NO. 2 PASADENA (24-6) vs. NO. 1 EISENHOWER (27-5)

The top two seeds will meet when No. 2 Pasadena (24-6) takes on No. 1 Eisenhower (27-5) in the CIF-Southern Section Division 2A championship game. The Bulldogs are making their first finals appearance since winning it all in 2007. Pasadena rid its two-year dry spell of second-round exits, a notion that’s haunted the Bulldogs the last couple years. Pasadena’s swarming defense was key in returning to the finals, but it also helped that the Bulldogs made giant strides as the season progressed. Turnovers and poor shot selections stymied Pasadena early in the season, particularly in tournament play. The Bulldogs, however, improved as they approached Pacific League play on minimizing turnovers and letting their defense create the offense. By late league season, Pasadena was playing stellar defense and growing comfortable with its new lineup. That’s exactly how Pasadena has won its last three playoff games. Case in point … Mira Costa in the quarterfinals had Pasadena by the ropes as the Bulldogs found themselves trailing at the half for the first time. The third quarter, however, was all Pasadena, Nick Holden hitting a layup at the buzzer to tie the game and help the Bulldogs take complete control in the fourth. The same thing happened last Friday when Pasadena came out hot in the third quarter, thanks to Tyler Barber who hit his first four shot attempts to help the Bulldogs and Chris Bridges making five third-quarter steals to help PHS pull away from a dangerous Keppel team making its first semifinals appearance in school history. There were a couple hundred fans who were kept out of the Keppel-PHS game last Friday. That was bound to happen when a game of that magnitude was played at Muir. “The site served its purpose,” Pasadena coach Tim Tucker said. “It served as an advantage because we’ve played our semifinals there before. The thing about it is that it’s a coin flip. They very well could have won the flip and we would have played wherever they wanted to play the game. We needed to play somewhere where we were comfortable, and Muir was the place.” On a side note … thanks to all of you who clicked on our Keppel-PHS photo gallery. We’ve had well over 25,000 hits since we posted the link.

OTHER GAMES AT THE HONDA CENTER ON SATURDAY
Tickets $13, $8, $8; Parking $15

9:00 a.m. – Boys Division 3A – Serra vs. Centennial/Compton
10:45 a.m. – Boys Division 2AA – Murrieta Valley vs. Compton
2:15 p.m. – Boys Division 1A – Santa Monica vs. Leuzinger
6:30 p.m. – Boys Division 1AA – Mater Dei vs. Etiwanda
8:15 p.m. – Boys Division 3AA – Ocean View vs. Foothill

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