CLICK HERE FOR A PHOTO GALLERY FROM THE SOCAL REGIONAL SEMIFINALS

By Keith Lair, Staff Writer

LA CAADA FLINTRIDGE – Mike McGlashan drove to the hoop. Instead of continuing to the basket on his way up, he stopped and took a fadeaway shot that banked in.
The next time down the court, the La Caada High School senior drove and took a scoop shot. It went in.

Those two baskets put the Spartans in front for the final time as they defeated visiting Inglewood 60-50 to advance to the CIF State boys basketball Southern California Regional final for the first time.

The Spartans, the top seed in Division III and the CIF-Southern Section Division 3AA champion, will play La Verne Lutheran for the title next Saturday at USC’s Galen Center.

“After a season like this, how can it not fall?” McGlashan said of those shots. “Everything was falling. I just knew I had to get to the basket.”

The baskets ended a tight, well-executed game that featured 11 lead changes. McGlashan scored all six of his 20 points in a key fourth-quarter run.

La Caada trailed 46-45 when he drove to the basket and banked in a 4-footer to tie the score with 4:24 to play.

He then made a fadeaway jumper for a 49-47 lead, Jamie Harper missed from 21 feet and McGlashan made the scoop shot.

“I didn’t expect them to go in and each one went in,” Matt Faber said. “It was, `Thank you, Mikey.’ ”

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Continue reading “Boys Basketball: La Caada dispatches Inglewood, headed to next week’s CIF State Southern California Regional championship game at USC’s Galen Center.” »

CLICK HERE FOR A PHOTO GALLERY FROM THE SOCAL REGIONAL FINAL

By Keith Lair, Staff Writer

DOWNEY – Alexandra Courtnall inherited her speed from her father Russ, who played in the NHL for 15 years, including his final two with the Kings. His daughter used her speed to lead Oaks Christian past top-seeded Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy 3-1 in Saturday’s CIF State Division III Southern California Regional soccer championship at Warren High.

Courtnall first sprinted by Tologs defender Natalie Zeenni to score three minutes into the game, and then got past defender Alexa Montgomery for a goal 15 minutes later to lead the Lions to victory in the region’s lone girls game featuring CIF-Southern Section teams.

“I did not know she was that good,” Zeenni said. “We were completely caught off-guard, which explains the first goal. It is definitely our fault. She is an amazing player.”

Courtnall, who’ll play at UCLA next year and is a member of the Canadian national junior team, took a long diagonal pass from Mandi Duncan three minutes into the game. Zeenni tried grabbing her jersey to slow her down, and Courtnall beat her to the ball for a relatively easy goal.

“I was completely shocked,” Courtnall said. “I did not think we were going to go up that quickly in the game. I heard they were an amazing team, and we were prepared for anything.”

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CLICK HERE FOR A PHOTO GALLERY FROM THURSDAY’S CRESPI-LA CANADA GAME

CIF STATE
SOCAL REGIONAL
SECOND ROUND
BOYS BASKETBALL
DIVISION 3
La Caada 43, Crespi 42
DIVISION 5
St. Bernard 68, Flintridge Prep 54

GIRLS BASKETBALL
DIVISION 5
Central Valley Christian 67, Pasadena Poly 52

GIRLS SOCCER
DIVISION 3
Flintridge Sacred Heart 3, St. Margaret’s 0

ELKS TOURNAMENT
CHAMPIONSHIP
Arcadia (2-1) at San Dimas (3-0), 6:45 p.m.

The game seemingly in hand, Arcadia baseball coach Nick Lemas made the decision to give a few of his pitchers a chance to show their stuff.

It’s an instinct most coaches follow, but one that nearly came back to bite the Apaches, whose four-run lead and chance of a shutout dissipated in the bottom of the sixth inning against Temple City in Tuesday’s semifinals of the Elks Tournament.

“It’s a tough decision sometimes because you have the natural instinct to want to finish a team,” Lemas said. “On the other side, it’s early in the year and you want to see what other guys can do, and it can end up costing you the game.”

Junior pitcher Erik Trask pitched five scoreless innings, gave up one hit and struck out seven before giving way to relievers Trevor Gleason, Nick Sergi and Darren Kerfoot, who closed the game to give the Apaches (2-1) a 4-3 win.

“You try to make good decisions,” Lemas said. “We were lucky we were able to get a couple pitchers, see what they could do in certain situations and still come away with the win.”

As a result, Arcadia moves on to the tournament final against host San Dimas (3-0) tonight at 6:30.

CIF-SS DIVISION 3AA FINAL: La Caada 50, L.A. Price 47 CLICK HERE FOR STORY

CIF-SS DIVISION 5AA FINAL: Flintridge Prep 47, Muir 44 CLICK HERE FOR STORY

Video by ESPNLA.com