Servite holds off La Habra in Katella Klassic

One team won. Two coaches were pleased.

Servite coach Tim Kelly liked the way the Friars hung in there to get a 79-74 overtime victory over La Habra in a pool-play game of the Katella Klassic on Friday at Katella, a victory that puts Servite into Saturday's 7:30 championship game against Savanna at Katella.

La Habra coach Mark Stewart liked the way the Highlanders hung in there, too, to make a fourth-quarter comeback that forced overtime.

Stewart said La Habra had been going through those late-December doldrums that can surround a high school basketball team. Friday’s fiery showing is what he hoped to see as the Highlanders are less than two weeks away from the start of play in what could be a challenging Freeway League.

Servite (9-3) had a 13-point lead early in the third quarter. Then La Habra 6-foot-4 junior guard Jordan Sachs supported Stewart’s description of him as “slippery” by finding different ways to get inside to score 10 points in the quarter and trim the Highlanders’ deficit to seven points going into the fourth quarter.

La Habra, behind two 3-pointers by junior guard Randy Nygren and some quick drives by senior forward Dominique Moreno, caught the Friars and then passed them for a 63-59 lead.

In the final minute of the game, Servite’s Andrew Ostergaard made two clutch 3-pointers. His second, set up by a nice drive-and-dish from senior guard Kyle Wallace, made it 68-68 with 17 seconds to go to force overtime.

Moreno fouled out in the first seconds of overtime. Nygren had fouled out late in the fourth quarter.

Servite took the lead late in overtime as junior John Russo scored on a reverse tip-in, Wallace made three free throws, and sophomore Richard Supan made two free throws with 10 seconds remaining.

“This is one of our better wins,” said Kelly, in his first season at Servite. “We’re just trying to build a lot of confidence within our guys.”

Ostergaard finished with 21 points, including five 3-pointers. He was 8 for 13 from the floor. Wallace scored 17 and Russo added 13.

Sachs finished with 25 points. Moreno scored 20 and Nygren had 16. La Habra will play Katella in the third-place game today at 6 p.m. at Katella.

In the Orange Holiday Classic:

No. 1 Mater Dei 77, Foothill 43: Five players scored in double figures for the Monarchs (13-0), led by Jamaal Trice’s 16. Mater Dei, which had a 24-3 lead after one quarter, will play Trinity League-rival JSerra in the championship game Saturday at 8:30 p.m. at Chapman University.

No. 4 JSerra 53, No. 8 Canyon 52: Demitrius Walker’s 23 points led the Lions (11-3) in a wild semifinal victory over the Comanches (9-4). Canyon’s Jerime Anderson scored 26 points with 16 rebounds and six assists.

In the Coast Classic:

Aliso Niguel 53, Fullerton 46: Connor Crabtree scored 17 points and Shance Boyd had 16 for the Wolverines (9-6) at Estancia. Aliso Niguel will play Chapparal of Temecula in the championship game Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Estancia.

In the Century Holiday Classic:

Los Alamitos 59, Tustin 34: Corbin Moore scored 18 points and Paul Richardson added 14 for the Griffins (9-5). Los Alamitos will play Glendora in the championship game Saturday at 8:05 p.m. at Century.

Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com