Crean Lutheran’s boys basketball team outscored Rancho Christian by 17 points in the second half to beat the Eagles 67-55 on Friday in the CIF-SS Division 1 semifinals at Rancho Christian High.
Crean Lutheran (25-7) will play JSerra for the Division 1 championship next week.
Crean Lutheran entered the playoffs as the No. 1 seed in Division 1 and JSerra was No. 2.
Hunter Caplan led Crean Lutheran with 25 points. Jacob Majok had 14 points with nine rebounds.
Crean Lutheran will be seeking its third CIF-SS championship. The Saints won the Division 3AA title in 2018 and the 2A championship in 2021.
In other games Friday:
In the Open Division:
Sierra Canyon 70, Santa Margarita 47: Santa Margarita suffered a lopsided loss on the road in the Open Division quarterfinals.
Sierra Canyon was the No. 1 seed in the Open Division and Santa Margarita was the No. 2 seed.
Kaiden Bailey led Santa Margarita (27-5) with 17 points and made four 3-pointers. Drew Anderson had nine points with six rebounds and Rodney Westmoreland led the team in rebounds and steals.
Santa Margarita qualified for the CIF State playoffs by reaching the Open Division quarterfinals. The Eagles beat Damien and fell to Harvard-Westlake in pool play of the Open Division.
In Division 2:
Hesperia 57, Mater Dei 52: Mater Dei led at halftime but fell to Hesperia on the road in the Division 2 semifinals.
Richie Ramirez made a game-tying 2-pointer in the fourth quarter and later cut Hesperia’s lead to three in the final minutes of the game, but Hesperia sank two free throws to put the game out of reach.
Mater Dei (20-15) beat Providence, Westlake and El Dorado in the earlier rounds of the playoffs.
In Division 5:
Pilibos 59, San Juan Hills 42: San Juan Hills had its section championship hopes end with the loss at Pilibos.
San Juan Hills (17-14) had multiple key starters miss games during South Coast League play, but finished in third place to earn a playoff spot. The Stallions got two of those key players back for the playoffs.
Rocco Jensen led the Stallions with 26 points and Garrett Brehmer added five.
The Stallions qualified for the state playoffs.
In Division 6:
Laguna Hills 62, Moreno Valley 51: Laguna Hills had two players score over 20 points in its semifinal win over Moreno Valley on the road.
Myles Mittelsteadt scored 21 points for Laguna Hills and Jackson Burnham added 20.
Laguna Hills (17-11) has not appeared in a CIF-SS basketball championship game in its 48-year history. The Hawks will play Ramona of Riverside in the championship game next weekend.
JSerra boys basketball tops Inglewood, advances to Division 1 title game
Aliso Niguel boys basketball earns spot in CIF-SS finals with win over Gahr
Trabuco Hills boys basketball defeats Norte Vista to earn spot in D4 final
