La Canada Boys Basketball Team Wins Share Of Rio Hondo League Title

The La Canada boys basketball team had two reasons to celebrate on Thursday night.

The Spartans beat Monrovia, 62-48, in the Rio Hondo League finale at Monrovia High School.

Moments after the game, the La Canada players and coaches learned they had won a share of the Rio Hondo League championship when South Pasadena lost to Culver City, 53-52.

After La Canada (15-11) lost to South Pasadena on Tuesday night, it looked like South Pasadena would win the Rio Hondo League title outright and La Canada would finish in second place.

The unexpected loss by South Pasadena gave La Canada its third Rio Hondo championship in a row and coach Tom Hofman his 21st league championship in his 26 years at La Canada. The Spartans have to share this year’s league championship with South Pasadena, but the smiles on the players faces after the game showed there was plenty of reasons to celebrate.

La Canada left little doubt in its game against Monrovia. Jay Srinivasan scored 21 points, with seven 3-pointers, and led La Canada to a blowout win.

“Jay’s a good shooter,” Hofman said. “He’s the one shooter we have out there.”

The Spartans were up 29-18 at halftime and increased their lead to 23 points, 45-22, in the third quarter.

“The defense was solid and we made some shots,” Hofman said. “We haven’t been able to do that lately.”

La Canada was up by 19 points at the start of the fourth quarter, 48-29, and cruised the rest of the way.

Darrell Dansby scored 17 points and Conner Boyd had 10 points off the bench for La Canada.

Monrovia’s Carl Daniels scored 17 points and teammate Brian Stiver had 11.

South Pasadena 44, La Canada 38: La Canada (14-11) entered the game tied for first place in the Rio Hondo League standings with South Pasadena and fell into second place on Tuesday night.

It was the fourth loss in five games for La Canada and dropped the Spartans into second place in the Rio Hondo League standings at 6-3.

Here’s a  look at other teams around town:

The Flintridge Prep boys basketball team completed an undefeated Prep League season with a 56-43 win over Pasadena Poly on Wednesday night.

The Rebels have won six games in a row, including the final three Prep League games.

Junior center Kareem Ismail scored a career-high 15 points and had 15 rebounds against Pasadena Poly.

Flintridge Prep coach Garrett Ohara said it was important for his team to win the Prep League championship with an undefeated record by beating Pasadena Poly and have an unblemished record before playoffs start.

“It’s always a big rivalry game,” Ohara said. “It’s a fun rivalry game. We held them to 17 points in the first half. It was a great effort.”

Flintridge Prep won the CIF Southern Section Division 5AA championship last year and advanced to the second round of the CIF State Division 5 playoffs.

Flintridge Prep (17-7) is ranked No. 6 in the Southern Section Division 5AA poll. St. Bernard, which beat Flintridge Prep in the State Division 5 playoffs last year, is ranked No. 1.

The Southern Section playoff pairings will be released on Sunday.

“We have eight days off until our next game,” Ohara said on Thursday. “We’ll be well-rested and ready.”

While Flintridge Prep did not lose to a league opponent this year, the Rebels had trouble beating non-league opponents.

Flintridge Prep was 9-7 against teams outside of the Prep League. Some of the tougher losses were to Murrieta Valley (23-2), Sierra Canyon (13-14), La Salle (13-13) and Mater Dei (22-2).

“It’s a whole different flavor when we’re playing in league,” Ohara said. “But it gets us ready for playoffs. We won league and we’re ready to face any kind of team in our division.”

One of the players Ohara will be expecting to step up in playoffs is junior Chadd Cosse. He has become a consistent-scoring post player for Flintridge Prep and developed surprisingly quick in Ohara’s eyes.

“He had to fill a hole and he’s become a go-to scorer down low,” Ohara said. “He’s real strong. We returned three guards and we knew what we had there. He filled our question mark position.”

El Camino Real 57, Renaissance Academy 54: Vince DeVaughn scored a game-high 24 points, but Renaissance Academy lost to El Camino Real in the Alemany To The Rack Showcase on Saturday.

Teammate Jessy Cantinol scored 16 points for the Wildcats.

Ribet Academy 57, Renaissance Academy 56: The Wildcats (19-6) ended the regular season with a three-game losing streak.

Renaissance Academy is still ranked No. 1 in the Southern Section Division 6 poll, despite a 1-2 record in Harbor League play.

Chaminade 49, St. Francis 39: St. Francis lost its eighth Mission League game of the season on Monday night.

Loyola 73, St. Francis 59: Zack Gardea scored 23 points for St. Francis (10-16) in the Mission League finale against Loyola on Wednesday.

St. Francis finished in sixth place in the Mission League with a 3-9 record.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported Mater Dei's record. Patch apologizes for the error.