2018-19 Week 14: It’s a Championship Day for La Jolla Country Day

La Jolla Country Day’s state championship, the first by a San Diego Section team since 2015, served as the denouement for a basketball season that ended in disappointment for the big four of Torrey Pines, Foothills Christian, St. Augustine, and Mission Bay.

The manner in which ‘Day finished its season, routing San Francisco University, 67-39, for the state Division III crown and winning its five regional and state playoff games by an average score of 70-51, would lend support that the Torreys may have been the best team in the area.

There would be little argument with that premise except the Torreys’ last loss was to Cathedral in the Section D-I playoffs, 64-55.  That was their fifth consecutive and not long after 14-season coach Ryan Meier’s team, which fought injuries to important players during the season, was out of The San Diego Union-Tribune final Top 10 and entering the state playoffs with a 16-12 record.

The Torreys rolled, beginning with their next contest, a Southern California regional, 66-55 victory over Carlsbad that was followed by wins of 73-57 over Los Angeles University, 73-62 over Anaheim Fairmont Prep, 71-43 over La Crescenta Crescenta Valley, and the final against S.F. University.

POINTS AND BOARDS

Ryan Langbord, who will be shooting 3-pointers next season at Princeton University, led the Torreys with 23 points and 17 rebounds, and plugged a possible rebounding deficit with 10 in the first half, when 6-10 Jayson Taylor was in foul trouble.

“I do whatever is needed most,” Langbord told John Maffei of the Union-Tribune.  “Most important was winning the state championship.  It’s awesome.  Winning state is a priceless moment.”

That the Torreys went by air to Sacramento on the day of the game instead of leaving a day earlier and traveling by bus seemed significant.  Maffei wrote that the Torreys were “looking fresh, fast, and fit.”

‘Day was 1-2 during the regular season against two of the Union-Tribune poll’s final top 4.  They dropped a 73-67 decision to No. 1 Torrey Pines and split with Coastal League rival and No. 2 Foothills Christian, winning, 72-67, and losing, 63-52.

Torrey Pines, St. Augustine, and Mission Bay all were eliminated in their first Southern California regional tests and Foothills Christian was sidelined in the quarterfinals.

INTERSECTIONAL SUCCESS

San Diego teams were 26-24 in competition against schools from out of the section and out of state.  Foothills Christian (24-7) was 8-4, La Jolla Country Day (23-13) 6-5, Mission Bay (18-13) 6-7, St. Augustine (22-8) 4-5, and Torrey Pines (25-7) 2-3.

The Torreys’ state title was the ninth for the San Diego Section in boys’ competition and the first since 2013, when St. Augustine was a D-II winner over San Francisco Sacred Heart, 59-52, in overtime, and Horizon defeated Alameda St. Joseph Notre Dame, 47-44.  There have been 11 championships in girls’ competition, beginning with the Terry Mann-led Point Loma Pointers, who dominated from 1984-87.

San Diego Section Boys and Girls champions and runners-up in state tournament competition, which resumed in 1981; the CIF did not hold championships on the state level from 1928-80: