SANTA ANA – If there’s one guy you don’t want to get into a track meet with, it’s San Gabriel Academy’s Marcus Lovette Jr.
From the opening tip, the lightning-quick junior point guard made it be known Saturday night’s matchup with Saddleback Valley Christian was going to be played at his pace – warp speed.
Lovette Jr. scored a game-high 38 points as the Eagles got past the Warriors, 61-50, in the CIF-SS Division 5AA championship game at Godinez High on Saturday evening.
With 3:35 remaining the contest, SVC (25-6) and San Gabriel Academy (23-7) had battled to a 45-45 standstill.
“We had the momentum in our favor at that point,” said SVC coach Tom Lewis. “We had to keep our poise and discipline at that time to be a championship team, and we didn’t do that.”
With the title on the line, the Eagles handed the keys over to Lovette Jr. and the point guard more than delivered, guiding San Gabriel on a 16-5 to close out the game.
Lovette Jr., a prized recruit in the 2015 class, went to the free-throw line 12 times in the fourth, converting on 11 of those opportunities. He scored 15 of his 38 points over the final eight points of play, and ended up as the only Eagles player in double figures.
“You’re not going to stop him, you’re going to hope that you can contain him,” Lewis added. “It says how special of a player he is because when it was crunch time, he came through.”
Forward Eric Rwahwire and guard Miles Seward, SVC’s two leading scorers, both fouled out in the fourth quarter while trying to bottle the shifty Lovette Jr.
The duo combined for 30 of the team’s points on Saturday, and with them out of the game late, SVC lacked the firepower to stay with the Eagles late.
The loss snapped Warriors 16-game winning streak that dated back to the beginning of January. They shot 17 of 52 from the field (32 percent) and hit only 2 of 15 shots from beyond the arc.
SANTA ANA – If there’s one guy you don’t want to get into a track meet with, it’s San Gabriel Academy’s Marcus LovettJr.
From the opening tip, the lightning-quick junior point guard made it known Saturday night’s matchup with Saddleback Valley Christian was going to be played at his pace – warp speed.
Lovett scored a game-high 38 points as the Eagles got past the Warriors, 61-50, in the CIF-SS Division 5AA championship game at Godinez High on Saturday evening.
San Gabriel Academy took a 30-27 lead into the half behind Lovett’s 15 points. The Eagles only shot 38 percent from the field in the opening half, but their attacking style earned them 16 trips to the free-throw line.
Not to be outdone, SVC point guard Miles Seward scored 14 points in the opening half to pace the Warriors.
The teams swapped leads several times in the third quarter, which ended on a 3-pointer by SVC’s Reece Bearden. As a result, the Warriors took a 41-40 lead into the fourth.
Lovett was the only Eagles scorer in double figures after three quarters, leading his team with 23 points. Joshua Ajayi was a distant second with eight points.
Contact the writer: kconnolly@ocregister.com
