On-site wrapups, comments, instant analysis from the CIF boys championship games on Saturday at Arco Arena in Sacramento.

Editor's Note: Stories written by Executive Editor Mark Tennis (Division I) and Senior Editor Ronnie Flores (Division III & Division IV).

Division I
Westchester (Los Angeles) 49, McClymonds (Oakland) 31

When a team from the Los Angeles City Section gets into the state finals, unless the Northern California team has a future NBA Hall of Famer on its roster, it's just about a guarantee that the NorCal squad will not win.

The Comets improved their own CIF state finals record to 5-0 in beating the Warriors and stamping themselves as one of the top teams in the nation. They also pushed the L.A. City's gaudy record in Division I finals to 17-1. Including Crenshaw's 8-0 record, the only loss the section has ever had in a state final was in 1991 when Fremont fell to Jason Kidd and his team from Alameda St. Joseph.

"There's just the competition,” said Westchester head coach Ed Azzam about the L.A. City's dominance. "I thought this year at the start that Taft (Woodland Hills) and Fairfax were the best teams.”

Azzam, whose team tied a Southern California record with its 35th win of the season (35-2 overall) and entered the night No. 1 in the state and No. 5 in the nation, wasn't only the best in the city this year, but on Monday likely will be named the 2009 State Team of the Year by CalHiSports.com.

Senior point guard Dominique O'Connor was steady, converted in the lane and defended well against counterpart Will Cherry for the Comets. He was the team's only scorer in double figures with 16 points, although three others nearly reached it. They were junior forward Dwayne Polee (nine), junior guard Jordin Mayes (eight) and senior forward Deshun McCoy (eight). Polee also had 10 rebounds and two blocks.

"He controlled the game on the offensive end,” Azzam said of O'Connor. "Plus, he was still playing pretty good defense. He's been our on-court leader all year.”

Mack's top scorer was senior Damon Powell with 10 points. He also had eight rebounds. Cherry was held to nine points.

"It's our third year here and I'm extremely proud of the boys,” said McClymonds head coach Brandon Brooks, who was an assistant the last two years under recently-retired Dwight Nathaniel. "We had a great year, but in this game they wanted it more than us. They outrebounded us and did a great job of executing their offense. They were just a better team than us.”

McCoy gave the Comets a lift in the first quarter with a pair of jumpers that broke an early 4-4 deadlock. The quarter, which featured scattered play from both teams, ended on a layup by O'Connor just before the horn for a 10-4 Westchester advantage.

It didn't get much better for Mack in the second quarter. A three-pointer by Kareem Jamar capped an 11-0 run as the Comets opened up a 15-4 lead. With their shots still not falling, the Warriors didn't answer for the rest of the period and trailed 24-11 at the halftime break. In fact, Mack's 3-of-28 shooting in the first half for 10.7 percent could be as bad a total as ever seen in a state final.

One of the reasons for Mack's poor showing was Westchester employing a zone defense, which was switched to in the early going.

”We wanted to see if they could handle it,” Azzam said "We hadn't seen any film, but we knew they weren't comfortable with the outside shot. We stayed with it because we had some success.”

The Warriors finally showed some life in the early minutes of the third quarter. Baskets by Cherry and senior Chris Jackson cut Westchester's lead to 26-19. The Comets answered, though, thanks mostly to a pair of jumpers from Jordan Mayes. Then just before the third quarter buzzer, Jamar drilled a long three and the lead was back up to 36-21.

"I'm proud of the school and the team,” said Cherry, who led the Warriors to a 29-1 record coming into the game and a No. 2 overall state ranking. "We overcame a lot of adversity, but we just couldn't pull it out today.”

Two years ago, when Mack played L.A. City champ Fairfax, it was a suffocating 53-29 win by the Lions. This year, it was similar as the Comets gave up no easy looks. They played their second straight defensive mauling, too, following up last week's 53-39 win over the same M.L. King of Riverside squad that two weeks ago knocked off unbeaten and national No. 1 Mater Dei of Santa Ana.

At the time of that game, much was made of an injury to Mater Dei senior Andy Brown, who missed the matchup vs. King as well as the last five weeks of the season with a knee injury. Even with a healthy Brown, though, Mater Dei might not have been better in the last two weeks of this season than the Comets. They were that impressive on Saturday night.

Division III
Sacred Heart Cathedral (San Francisco) 62, Ocean View (Huntington Beach) 55

The conventional thinking heading into Saturday afternoon's Div. III boys title game was the underdog Seahawks from Ocean View could pull out the fourth consecutive victory for the Southern Californians in this division if they could shoot as well from the outside as they did during the SoCal regionals.

The Seahawks shot a blistering 56 percent from three-point range in their regional final victory over Harvard-Westlake of Nrth Hollywood, but a 29 percent shooting performance (5 of 17) against Sacred Heart Cathedral spelled doom as the Fighting Irish captured their first state title with a 62-55 victory.

Sacred Heart Cathedral (28-4) lost to Horizon of San Diego in the 2006 Div. IV state final. The outcome of that game was not lost among two big guns for SHC on Saturday afternoon.

"This state title means a lot," remarked Sacred Heart Cathedral's Kevin Greene, who finished with nine points and completely controlled the paint with 20 rebounds. "I'm speaking for Jerry (Brown) here, but we lost at state in our freshman year and we weren't going to lose this game."

Greene's rebounding total was one short of the all-time CIF state title game record.

Brown, SHC's other four-year standout, netted 11 points and 11 rebounds, including five on the offensive glass. Besides the cold shooting from the outside by Ocean View (27-8), another main factor in the outcome of the game was the physical dominance of the Fightin' Irish, who were much physically stronger than Ocean View's young club. Led by Greene and Brown, Ocean View was out-rebounded by its Northern California counterparts, 50-35.

"I was happy with how hard we played," said Sacred Heart Cathedral head coach Darrell Barbour. "I always wondered how it felt to win the last game of a season."

A big reason Barbour, in his second season as head coach, was able to experience that sensation was his team's fast start, as SHC jumped out to a 10-0 lead. Ocean View did not get off the snide until sophomore guard Billy Keller made a free throw with 4:06 remaining in the first quarter.

The Fightin' Irish took a 15-6 lead, but squandered numerous opportunities to extend their lead. When Ryan Okwudibonye (7 points, 9 rebounds) nailed a three-pointer with 30 seconds remaining in the first quarter, all of a sudden it was a 15-11 ballgame.

Sacred Heart Cathedral continued to get point blank looks and physically dominate underneath in the second quarter, as it outscored the Seahawks,18-11. It didn't help the visiting club from Orange County that it made only one of seven three-point field goals and only six of 25 (24 percent) field goals overall. The Seahawks were also grounded by what Ocean View head coach Jim Harris Sr. felt was a lackluster defensive performance in the first half.

"I have mixed feelings about this game," said Harris Sr. "If it was over at halftime, I wouldn't have been pleased. We just didn't have the fire, drive or confidence. The second half performance was who this team is."

Despite Harris' comments, SHC still extended its lead in the third period as it outscored the Seahawks, 15-9. The Fightin' Irish got an especially fine performance in the period from 6-foot-1 guard Nate Gartell, who scored a game-high 23 points. His acrobatic lay-up in traffic gave SHC a 47-27 lead and Barbour's club entered the final period with a 48-31 lead.

That is when Ocean View started to play with the passion Harris Sr. had wanted all along. The Seahawks cut the lead to 10 points (54-44) on a three-pointer by junior wing Anthony Brown, who finished the game with a team-high 18 points. He then converted on a lay-up to cut the lead to single digits, or so it showed on the scoreboard.

The official CIF scorers inadvertently awarded Ocean View two points during its run. Unlike two years ago during a close Div. II title game between Mater Dei of San Ana and Mitty of San Jose, the books got it right and took two points off the board with 3:41 remaining.

Ocean View didn't lose any momentum, despite the adjustment, as Brown nailed another three-pointer to make the score 55-47. Ocean View got to within six points when Keller nailed a three-pointer with just over two minutes remaining. The score read 56-50 after that triple and the Eagles still trailed by six points (58-52) when Sacred Heart Cathedral had possession of the ball with one minute remaining.

A shot went up for SHC, but Greene made the most decisive, and most fitting, play of the game when he muscled his way to an offensive rebound put back to give his team a commanding 60-52 lead. The possibility of an Ocean View victory was basically over after that.

"I wanted to talk positively to my team throughout the game," remarked Greene, one of the nation's best football-basketball players who plans on competing in both sports at USC although his scholarship is as a defensive end for head coach Pete Carroll's gridders. "I wanted to beat my chest and come out and let them (Ocean View) know we were there."

Division IV
Salesian (Richmond) 65, Bishop Montgomery (Torrance) 64

Entering Saturday afternoon's boys CIF Div. IV state title game, Northern California teams had put forth game efforts, but were 0-5 against their Southern California counterparts.

With Bishop Montgomery clinging to a 64-63 lead with approximately 10 seconds remaining, senior Justin Cobbs shot an off-balance jumper that hit the front of the rim. With a stroke of luck, or perhaps even a stroke of fate, the ball trickled straight back to him.

The Minnesota-bound guard stepped to the free throw line with 7.9 second remaining and, again, his shot in the one-and-one situation was short.

Salesian rebounded, got the ball to its big gun of the day, Desmond Simmons, 60 feet from the basket and with the championship seconds ticking off the clock. When Simmons got to the front court, he dribbled the ball off his own leg, but in another stroke of fate, the ball ricocheted straight to Salesian's Jabari Brown.

"I thought I was going to shoot," remarked Brown, a 6-foot-3 sophomore. "I didn't know how much time was left. I thought if I dribbled, the clock would just run out."

With many of Bishop Montgomery's players converging toward the scrum for the ball near the Salesian bench, the Pride's Kendall Andrews, slid underneath the basket. As Cobbs was attempting to play the shooter on the outside and protect the basket simultaneously, Andrews took a heady pass from Brown and kissed the ball off the glass in to the basket for the game-winning points as the buzzer sounded, which sent Arco Arena into a state of pandemonium.

Bishop Montgomery's Michael Panaggio fell to the ground with the ball in his hands in a state of shock. Cobbs walked away and removed his uniform in disgust, but afterwards he didn't shy away or make any excuses whatsoever for the outcome of the game's dramatic ending sequence.

"I had a chance to make it a three-point game, you can blame it on me," Cobbs said. "I should have made those two free throws. I was trying to defend a two for one and I basically made two bad plays in the last 10 seconds. It's more a feeling of disappointment than shock."

Cobb's head coach, Doug Mithcell, who was hoping to take home his third state title after wining in Div. III in 2000-01, immediately stood up for his four-year standout.

"Justin is taking the blame but it's not about that," Mitchell explained. "Without him, we don't get this far and in this game we are not even in that position to win if not for Justin."

With the heart-stopping win, Salesian captured its first state title and won the first title for Northern California of this year's two-day state championship event.

"I thought Jabari was going to shoot," Andrews said. "But I saw I was open, called for the ball, shot it and it went in. At the end of the day, all I was trying to do was finish it. A bunch of things went through my mind, but all I could do was cry."

Both teams went through a feeling-out process but quickly started to trade blows. Cobbs, last week's CalHiSports.com State Athlete of the Week, drained a three-pointer to give the Knights a 3-2 lead. He came back and quickly hit another one as the SoCal Div. IV champions took a 6-2 lead.

Salesian (31-4) countered with some shots of its own. When Brown knocked down a straight-away three-pointer, it cut the Knights lead to 10-7. The Pride eventually took a 11-10 lead on a steal by 5-foot-7 freshman Artis Dominic that he pushed up to Simmons for an easy basket. Simmons was a load for the Knights to handle in the first half, as the muscular 6-foot-6 junior erupted for 15 points and 12 rebounds before halftime.

The North Coast Section champions held a 15-12 lead after one quarter and Simmons quickly struck again as he played the passing lanes and went in for a lay-up to give his team a 17-12 lead. Artis then fired a pinpoint pass into the post from 35 feet out in to Simmons, who converted a conventional three-point play. At that point the Pride went up by double digits (22-12), but Bishop Montgomery (28-5) closed the second quarter with a flurry.

Salesian's lead was 32-22, but Mitchell's club got a bucket and two big three pointers from Panaggio right before the half to make the score 32-20.

At the start of the third quarter, the Knights kept putting it on Salesian offensively, and eventually built its lead to seven points (39-32) with a 17-0 run.

Salesian had an answer, however, and never lost confidence in its ability to win the game.

"Since the beginning of our league playoffs, I've just had this feeling," remarked Salesian head coach Bill Mellis, who captured his first state title. "We took it one game at a time, and through our nine playoffs games, I thought we would do it."

A dunk by Bishop Montgomery's Richard Solomon (7 points) made the score 54-44 at the end of the third period. But similar to their coach, the Pride's players believed and they slowly cut into the Knights' lead in the final period. They went on a quick 6-0 run to open the fourth quarter, highlighted by back-to-back buckets by Simmons.

Bishop Montgomery kept the comeback kids from NorCal at bay with some timely shots by Cobbs and Panaggio, but towards the end the Knights were holding on for dear life with each possession.

Brandon Bibbins hit a clutch three-pointer to give Bishop Montgomery a 64-59 lead with 1:55 remaining, but Salesian kept coming at them. Simmons answered with a driving lay-up to make the score 64-61. Following a shot clock violation by the Knights with 1:06 remaining, Simmons converted a driving shot that started at the top of the key to account for the final points before the final, and fateful, sequence involving Cobbs, Brown and Andrews.

Cobbs scored a team-high 24 points, including four three-pointers, grabbed five rebounds and made two steals. Panaggio was the other Bishop Montgomery player in double figures with 13 points, including three triples.

Simmons scored a game-high 31 points and grabbed 19 rebounds as Salesian out-rebounded its opponent, 42-26. Brown finished with 14 points and Andrews with six points, including the shot heard around the state.

Andrews summed up sentiments of thousands with one sentence:

"I never thought I would make a game-winning shot in a state championship."

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