San Francisco City advances to 3C2A Men's Basketball Championship game

WALNUT -- San Francisco City coach Justin Labagh needs one to get to five.

Labagh has reached the 3C2A State Championship game after upending Citrus, 111-97, at Mt. San Antonio. The Rams will play the winner of Fullerton-San Bernardino Valley tomorrow at 1 pm at Mt. San Antonio.

With the Rams' victory, Labagh sets up a chance to break his tie with legendary coach Jerry Tarkanian. Each coach has won four state titles. San Francisco's men's basketball program will make its 13 state championship appearance tomorrow, the most among the 100 college-paying programs. Only Ventura has more than 10 state championship appearances with 11. In the Rams' previous 12 championship games, San Francisco has finished 5-7.

Tomorrow's championship-game appearance will be Labagh's eight appearance, winning four of the seven championship games during his 21-year career. CCSF (30-1), the north's #1 seed, will take a 16-game win streak into the finals.

After trailing the entire first half, San Francisco got off to a quick start in the second half, scoring nine of the first 13 points to take a two-point at 59-57 on a Ricky Mitchell, Jr. four-point play with 17:49 left. When Dominic Williams made a deep three pointer with 13:35 left, the Rams had their largest lead of the game at 72-64. But Citrus fought back, getting within 72-67 with 12:46 left, but again San Francisco City answered, upping its lead to nine points at 76-67. Citrus went nearly three minutes without scoring but was down only five at 76-69 with 8:50 left. An Antonio Pustateri dunk with 7:31 left gave the Rams a 10-point lead at 87-77 that they would extend to 13.

Citrus would make its final run, cutting the lead to eight at 94-84 on a three-pointer by KJ Perry, but Victor Oliveria matched the three, keeping the Rams lead in double digits. Down the stretch, Citrus went cold while San Francisco continued to dominate the boards, securing second chance opportunities and keeping the Owls from making any further runs, other than cutting the lead to eight at 92-84 with 6:03 left. San Francisco City outscored the Owls 19-13 over the last six minutes to secure the win.

The Rams dominated the boards, especially on the offensive end. CCSF finished with a 10-rebound advantage. The squad secured 15 offensive rebounds, many leading to easy putbacks.

"We are going to do whatever it takes," Labagh said of the Rams' strong rebounding performance. "You are going to win that game without winning the rebound war and getting the loose balls. We try to leave nothing to chance, and i thought really stood out in this game. I thought they were a little bigger, but I thought coming in we were quicker, and I think everyone saw that today. Most aggressive team will win these types of games."

Ten Rams players had at least one rebound, led by Antonio Pusateri who had 8 to go with a team-high 20 points. 

"Pusateri really stood out in this game," Labagh said. "It was long ago that he didn't see the floor. He wasn't guarding well, so we didn't play him for two weeks. During conference, he didn't play for two weeks. He clawed his way out. Him doing that allowed us to point out to everyone else how he handled (his adversity)."

The first half was a slugfest as the two teams combined to score 48 of the 103 points in the paint. Citrus had the game's largest lead at eight points with 8:45 remaining but in just 44 seconds San Francisco had cut the lead to two at 30-28. Despite the pace of play and scoring runs, there was only one lead change with the score being twice in the first half. Ironically, San Francisco recorded the only fastbreak points in the half as both teams were quick to get back on defense. Both teams shot the ball well, with Citrus making 20 of 35 field goals (57 percent).

Thanks to nine offensive boards, San Francisco shot 53.8 percent (21 of 39). The two teams combined to make 9 three pointers on 21 tries. San Francisco had five of the three pointers. Citrus had three players finish the first half in double figures as Amiri Meadows and KJ Perry each had 12, while San Francisco had one, Amos, with 11. Interestingly CCSF's bench outscored Citrus, which has a deep bench, 16 to 11.

Four of San Francisco's four starters finished in double figures. In addition to Pusateri, Rickey Mitchell, Jr. had 19 points, while Amos, who missed a big chunk of the second half due to foul trouble, had 17. King-Mjhsanni Wilhite added 14. Jermaine Haliburton came off the bench to add 16.

The loss snapped a 23-game win streak for the Owls (29-3), who were the south's #2 seed. The loss was the third for Citrus head coach Brett Lauder in the final four games. He previously lost both previous appearance in overtime. Citrus was led by Tyler Isaac with a game-high 27 points, Perry added 17 and Amiri Meadows, chipped in 16 after scoring 10 points in the first 10 minutes of the game.

Labagh believes his Rams are playing their best basketball of the season. He said, it started after they lost to Las Positas on January 10.

"That really woke us up. We came into that game not preparing lie we had for our previous game," Labagh said. "The kids weren't professional in that game, and honestly they were professional leading up to that game. From that point on, they have been playing playoff basketball."

Labagh continued to play down that another championship would move him past Tarkanian, a legendary coach in the game of basketball

"It would be nice for the program," he said. "Every coach starts his season with the opportunity to win and we always want to be in the position (to win the championship)."

Here is a look at San Francisco City's championship game history
1962 - CC San Francisco (20-12) Sid Phelan 71-56 vs. Citrus at Orange Coast
1966 - Riverside City (33-1) Jerry Tarkanian 91-61 vs. CC San Francisco (30-3) at Bakersfield
1978 - Bakersfield (33-2) Ralph Krafve 100-85 vs. CC San Francisco (22-11) at Long Beach Arena
1981 - El Camino (32-4) Paul Landreaux 78-53 vs. CC San Francisco (33-3) at CSU Fullerton
1986 - Sacramento City (27-7) Mike Syas 77-71 vs. CC San Francisco (31-3) at Cerritos
2010 - Saddleback (29-5) Andy Ground 63-57 vs. CC San Francisco (28-5) at Cal Lutheran
2011 - CC San Francisco (32-1) Justin Labagh 83-81 vs. Citrus (27-6) at Ventura
2016 - CC San Francisco (32-1) Justin Labagh 68-57 vs. Saddleback (31-2) at Las Positas
2018 - CC San Francisco (33-1) Justin Labagh 82-72 vs. San Diego City (33-3) at Ventura
2019 - Fullerton (30-3) Perry Webster 85-79 vs. CC San Francisco (31-2) at Ventura 
2022 - CC San Francisco (32-1) Justin Labagh 91-66 vs. West Valley (28-4) at West Hills-Lemoore
2023 - Fullerton (32-1) Perry Webster 83-73 vs. CC San Francisco (29-4) at West Hills-Lemoore