Ocean View headed to SoCal final Saturday

The Ocean View High faithful had many chants in the closing minutes Thursday night, but the most meaningful one started with 48 seconds left.

It was just four letters, but they meant so much to the Seahawks.

The chant? “UCLA.”

That’s where the Ocean View boys’ basketball team is going on Saturday. The Seahawks are just two games away from a state title, after outlasting Canyon, 66-57, in the CIF State Division III Southern California regional semifinals.

No. 2-seeded Ocean View (26-7) will play top-seeded Harvard-Westlake (28-6) for the Southern California Division III title on Saturday at noon at Pauley Pavilion.

“I said, ‘I want you guys to put it away,’ ” Coach Jim Harris said of the team’s previous success this year. “Put the league championship away, put the CIF championship away. We’re going to enjoy it later. But right now we’ve got a little tournament we’re in, and it’s going to take four games to win it. So two down, two to go. Let’s see if we can go be the Southern [California] regional champion.”

With Saturday’s victory, which snapped Canyon’s 19-game winning streak, Ocean View has advanced the furthest of any team in Harris’ 31-year tenure.

Senior guard Mason Jones wouldn’t have it any other way. He stepped up big-time, pouring in a season-high 26 points, including four three-pointers. Defensively, Jones also did a fine job on Canyon senior Braden Priest.

Priest, the Comanches’ leading scorer during the season, had 12 points — but just one in the second half.

“It’s all about defense now,” Jones said. “Avery [Johnson] got in foul trouble, and I took it upon myself. It was, ‘I want No. 33 [Priest]. I want to take him out of his game. I’m not going to let him beat us.’ ”

Junior center Ryan Okwudibonye also came up large, with seven points, 16 rebounds and three blocked shots. His big play inside was critical, as Canyon’s offense partially consisted of sophomore guard Chris Anderson driving inside before kicking out to open shooters.

Okwudibonye helped out Ocean View’s half-court defense, which was needed as the Seahawks abandoned their press once they got into foul trouble.

“Whenever the ball came out, I just got in position to rebound,” Okwudibonye said. “The ball just found me, I guess. I don’t know. I guess I was active around the paint ... Coach was saying we needed to pick it up [on defense], and I think that’s what took the game over at that point.”

Junior guard Anthony Brown added 16 points for Ocean View, which was down, 26-25 at halftime. But the Seahawks opened the second half on a 7-0 run, capped by a lay-up from Jones, to give the Seahawks a lead they’d never relinquish.

During the run, Canyon senior center Dan Galluccio was called for his fourth foul trying to draw a charge. Canyon Coach Nate Harrison didn’t like the call, and he was later called for a technical foul after arguing an Ocean View player had traveled.

“[Galluccio’s fourth foul] hurt us bad,” Harrison said. “It was a tough call, one of those flop [or] charge, 50-50. They were just much bigger than us at that point, and we had a hard time rebounding after that. They went on a run, and their kids made some really tough shots.

“We knew we could play with them. Our kids were confident we could play with them. We’ve felt all year long that if we could hold teams in the 40s or 50s, that we were going to win games. That’s what we’ve been doing ... they went to 60 tonight and we weren’t good enough to go there with them. Congratulations to Coach Harris.”

Harris will have less than two days to prepare his team for a Harvard-Westlake squad that has won 12 straight times.

“Harvard-Westlake is more like us, only I think they’re a little bigger,” Harris said. “But almost everybody’s bigger than we are. That’s why Ryan’s job he did tonight was so impressive.”

***In a CIF State Division II Southern California regional semifinal on the girls’ side, Edison fell at top-ranked Mater Dei, 62-46, Thursday to end the Chargers’ season.

Edison (25-6) actually had a 16-10 lead after the first quarter, but then Mater Dei (32-0), ranked No. 1 in the state by CalHiSports.com, started taking control.

Senior forward Kelly Peterson scored 12 to lead Edison, while sophomore Bonnie Samuelson and freshman Lauren Grego had 11 each.

Mater Dei sophomore guard Kaleena Lewis, named the Gatorade California Player of the Year earlier Thursday, had 20 points and seven rebounds.