TORREYS SHORT OF ADVANCING IN DIV. III
The girls aren’t the only team on the La Jolla Country Day campus who can play basketball.
But an anticipated girls-boys semifinal playoff fell a game short as the boys dug a 13-point hole and couldn’t dig out, losing 48-44 to Ventura Buena in a Division III semifinal.
Buena (28-5), which lost to Downey St. Pius X-St. Matthias in the CIF Southern Section Division 3A championship, led 13-11 after a first quarter in which the lead changed hands four times and the game was tied once.
The Torreys took a 28-26 halftime lead on an in-bound buzzer beater by Anthony Aruffo.
The score was tied twice and the lead changed hands four times in the second quarter.
Buena took control of the game in the third quarter, taking a 13point lead as the Bulldogs outscored the Torreys 18-3.
But La Jolla Country Day (24-8), the San Diego Section Division II champions, outscored Buena 13-1 to open the fourth quarter and cut the Bulldogs lead to 45-44 with 4:12 to play.
Buena got a bucket from Luke Ortiz to stretch the lead back to three and LJCD turned the ball over on its next two possessions. Still, the Torreys had a chance. Bito Bass-Sulpizio blocked a Buena shot and the Torreys grabbed the rebound with 30 seconds to play.
But a pair of 3-point shots fell short and Buena made a free throw to put the game away.
“We had some looks that normally go down,” said La Jolla Country Day coach Mike Ricchiuti. “Credit to Buena, they went into a zone and it disrupted us a little.
“Really, this was a great game. There were some 50-50 calls that didn’t go our way, and that was a big difference.
“That’s not a knock on the officials because those calls could have gone either way.”
Buena came into the game ranked No. 77 in the state. La Jolla Country Day was ranked No. 81.
But since the Torreys were a section champion, they were the topseed in Division III while the Bulldogs were seeded No. 8.
“We didn’t fold in the fourth quarter,” said Ricchiuti, whose nephew Vincent plays for St. Augustine.
“This is the most-exceptional group I’ve ever been around … and second place isn’t even close.”
Buena’s Zane Carter led all scorers with 14 points and he added six rebounds. Zane Ortiz added nine points and had six rebounds.
Chris Carillo led LJCD with 11 points — eight in the fourth quarter. Aruffo finished with 11 points, including a big 3-pointer in the fourthquarter rally.
James Wei had eight points. Bass-Sulpizio finished with seven points, grabbed 10 rebounds and blocked three shots.
While the boys haven’t been as successful as the girls at LJCD, the boys have had their share of victories.
In the last eight seasons, the boys had five 20-win seasons and were 19-11 last season.
The 2018-19 Torreys, led by Princeton standout Ryan Langborg, won a State Division III title, beating Cresenta Valley for the Southern California Regional title, blowing out San Francisco University 67-39 in Sacramento.
Buena, a school of 2,000, is located 170 miles from the La Jolla Country Day campus.
The Bulldogs took vans from Ventura with the drive a little more than four hours.
In another Division III game, second-seeded Culver beat No. 10 Lincoln 82-77. The Hornets led after the first quarter, but were outscored by 11 in the second period.