SACRAMENTO — It looks like La Jolla Country Day isn’t just a girls basketball powerhouse anymore.
The Torreys won their first boys basketball title in school history on Friday afternoon, racing out to a 23-3 lead and out-rebounding University-San Francisco 47-27 en route to a 67-39 win in the CIF Division III Championship.
On a day where neither team could hit a 3-pointer (the two teams combined to shoot 6-for-41 beyond the arc), it was LJCD’s ability to crash the boards and deny every Red Devils attempt to penetrate that decided the game.
“Fortunately, we were able to get some breakout buckets and attack off the dribble,” Torreys head coach Ryan Meier said. “It’s nice to be able to win a game without having to use the 3-point shot.”
University (27-10) typically handles the interior well despite lacking a true post player, winning by getting contributions throughout the lineup and slashing through the lane, but the Torreys mercilessly walled the NCS Division V Champions off from the hoop. 6-foot-10 center Jayson Taylor scored the first six points for LJCD, and with a Ryan Langborg dunk and nine early points from freshman James Hapgood, it was a 20-point lead in the early moments of the second quarter.
“I think we’ve realized during the playoffs how good we are when we get stops,” Meier said. “It presents us with easy chances on the offensive end. Take it personally, cut guys off, don’t let them get to the paint.”
Undeterred, the Red Devils got it down to 14 in the final minutes of the second quarter, aided by three fouls on Taylor (12 points), but Langborg came through to close the half with a putback to give the Torreys a 34-18 lead at the break.
Even with the Princeton-bound Langborg recording a double-double in the first half, capped off by his putback at the buzzer to drive the point home, the Devils opened the third on an 8-0 run, aided by two Max Fried free throws after a technical foul. The surge would disappear just as quickly as it had come to fruition. La Jolla Country Day (23-13) finished the third on a 15-1 run, getting a Sam Coleman putback to end the third with a 51-29 lead.
It would never get closer in the fourth as Langborg rode out his high school career as a champion, Taylor finished his journey on top before embarking on a new one at Tufts, and point guard Ray Lu left with a bang, all while the seniors passed the baton to the Hapgood brothers. James and Josh both started for the Torreys and played as well as any freshmen in a state championship in recent memory, with James scoring 14 points while John held the fort down on defense.
At the same time, the door shut on Fried and Charley Moore’s careers at University, and while Friday’s game was a dud for the Devils, the pair both had sensational runs for Randy Bessolo’s team. Fried played on the varsity squad for all four years, a stretch in which University collected 108 wins, while Moore transitioned from baseball to basketball, with plans to play next year at Middlebury, where he’ll face off with Taylor’s Tufts squad in the NESCAC. Fried will also be playing in Division III in college, heading to Emory University in Atlanta.
“It’s not just the stats,” Bessolo said of his seniors. “It’s the example they set. We graduated eight seniors after winning 31 games last year, and the younger guys developed as the seniors embraced the team. That’s why we got here.”
Two other senior starters, Jack McFadden and Reese Johnson, will also graduate.
Moore led University with 13 points and was one of the only efficient shooters for the Devils, going 4-for-7 from the field. Overall, his team made just 12 of 47, including a 4-for-24 performance on threes. Whitner Reichman, who scored five points off the bench, was the only other player to shoot over 50% from the field.
“It can be hard shooting in NBA arenas,” Bessolo said. “We always say ‘feels good, looks good, next one’s good,’ and we had a lot of good looks. They didn’t fall. We always say that if we have a bad shooting game, we can still win. We just can’t have something else go wrong. In this case, it was the rebounding.”
While there was a multitude of talent on the floor during Friday afternoon’s contest, it was clear that Langborg stood out above the rest. He led all players with 23 points and 17 rebounds on a day where everything seemed to click for a Torreys team that had dealt with adversity all year long. He, Taylor and almost every other major contributor missed at least a few games to injury, but at full strength, it’s clear that LJCD wouldn’t have lost 13 games or finished third in the Coastal League.
Those setbacks from earlier in the year don’t matter at this point. La Jolla Country Day is a state champion, and the Torreys won their trophy in convincing fashion.
“It’s a great feeling to go out on top,” Langborg said.
