Basketball is a tale of two halves.
Citrus won the first half.
San Francisco won the second.
Decidedly for the Owls, the second half is what determined who took the first spot in the championship game.
Citrus’ storybook season came to a close as the Owls (29-3) lost to the Rams (31-1) in the semifinal of the 3C2A state championships on March 15 at Mt. San Antonio College.
“You know the destination wasn’t exactly what we hoped but the relationships we made,” Citrus guard Blake Ballard said. “We all became better people and better basketball players over this experience, so I just want all the players, all the coaching staff to stick together.”
Citrus ends the season with 29 wins, the most since 2008 when the Owls won the state title.
In a combined 208 point affair, the loss wasn’t determined by points, but by grit and willpower.
The Owls were outdone by the Rams in both.
Citrus led San Francisco in one non-scoring statistic out of four, blocks.
The Rams finished with six more offensive rebounds, four more defensive rebounds and three more steals than the Owls.
“We didn’t really finish the job by boxing out and finishing plays like we did in the first half,” assistant coach Jeriko Santos said.
Citrus was in control of the game the first half, their aggressive play being rewarded with 11 free throws compared to the Rams four.
This contributed to their three point lead at the end of the first half.
The Owls lost control early in the second half.
“I wouldn’t say anything specifically went wrong, just you know, basketball is a game of runs and they made some good halftime adjustments,” Ballard said.
The Rams took the lead three minutes into the second half 57-58.
It seemed for every basket Citrus scored, the Rams scored twice.
“It was definitely back and forth in the first half,” Citrus guard Tyler Issak said. “We got off to a slow start in the second half but once they got up by eight or 10 then they kind of had all the momentum going and they made a lot of big time shots.”
Isaak had a game high of 27 points. Point guard KJ Perry had 17 and point guard Amiri Meadows had 16.
Citrus managed to cut down the lead in the second half, at times only trailing by a few points. However, they failed to retake the lead.
“City got hot and after that we dug ourselves a hole,” Santos said. “It’s tough being down in a final four game rather than it being a regular game.”
Despite the loss in the final four, this has been the Owl’s best conference season since going undefeated in 2018-2019.
“We accomplished a lot, even though it might not seem like it right now, we still went undefeated in conference,” Ballard said. “I think we can move forward together as just grown men.”
The team now has its sights on getting their players to compete at the next level.
“We have a lot of old sophomores so our goal is just push everyone out including the coaching staff and help the coaching staff get everyone a two-year scholarship at a four-year university and then stay connected, come back and hopefully pave the road for Citrus basketball in the future,” Ballard said.
Seven freshmen remain on the team with the opportunity to make an even further run in the 2025-26 season.
“I would just say for everybody to keep their head up,” point guard Brandon Suber said. “We had a great season and the best is yet to come and everybody has a bright future ahead of them.”
More information on the Owl’s final game of the season can be found here.
A game recap can be found here.
