(SAN DIEGO) PLNU Men's Basketball had every reason to throw in the towel in Monday's NCAA West Regional Championship.
The Sea Lions were already down one injured First Team All-PacWest player. Then their National Player of the Year candidate,
Kaden Anderson, went down with an injury early in the first half before later coming back into the game clearly hobbled.
To top it off, second-seeded and No. 6 nationally-ranked Cal State San Bernardino extended their lead to 12 points with 15:45 left in the second half.
But the Sea Lions weren't going down without a fight.
Top-seeded Point Loma fought back to tie the game and had a chance to take the lead in the final minute, but its valiant comeback bid fell just short, as CSUSB defeated PLNU 89-83 to claim the West Regional title.
"I told the guys afterward that I've never been prouder of a team that I've coached," Head Coach
Matt Logie said. "What they did tonight was unbelievable. For the second weekend in a row, we had one of our top-two players go down and had to adapt in the middle of the game.
"Guys stepped up. They kept believing, they kept fighting. That's been the story of this team all year. It's what led to the historic season that they had. It's a shame that we don't get to see what that full picture looked like but that's sports and that's why we focus on the process and focus on the journey.
"They left every ounce of themselves out there tonight and I know every single Point Loma fan, student, family member, coach and alum can hold their head up high and have peace of mind knowing they gave it their all."
No one left more out there than Anderson.
The D2CCA West Region Player of the Year made a 3-pointer early in the first half to put PLNU up 9-4 but landed awkwardly on the foot of a defender closing out to contest the shot.
Anderson needed the assistance of two athletic trainers to get off the court, unable to put much of any weight on his injured ankle and unable to take the ensuing free throw, which
Shamrock Campbell converted.
"I didn't even know I made it," Anderson said of the play he was injured. "Obviously, I was in a lot of pain. I was just trying to find a way to get back on the court as fast as I could."
After missing seven minutes of action and testing out his ankle behind the basket, Anderson miraculously returned to the game to a rousing ovation from the Loma faithful.
"Adrenaline definitely helped," Anderson said. "For all the fans, everybody there, everybody that came out to support, I just wanted to give it my all. If this was going to be my last game, then I was going to go out fighting. That's what I did."
Not only did he return, but he willed and hobbled his way to a game-high 27 points on 9-of-14 shooting, including a perfect 5-for-5 from 3-point range.
"I've been doing this a long time and I've never seen anybody do what Kaden just did with the injury that he had," Logie said. "It was unbelievable. There is no question in my mind that he's the National Player of the Year."
The Sea Lions maintained a slight advantage when Anderson subbed back into the game, with guys like
Tobin Karlberg (20 points) and
Brian Goracke (12 points) helping to shoulder the offensive load in his absence.
Anderson then scored eight-straight Sea Lions points, but it wasn't enough to slow down a CSUSB offense that went on an 11-0 run and scored 46 points in the first half, the most points a team has scored on PLNU in any half this season.
CSUSB held a seven-point advantage at halftime and then took its first double-digit lead of the game just a few minutes into the second period, but PLNU slowly crawled its way back into it as the second half went along.
"Grit, belief," Logie said about what got his team back in the game. "We knew that obviously Kaden wasn't able to move around much on defense, so we tried some different things and threw some stuff against the wall.
"We played some defenses we've never played before and did some things that we'd barely done before, just to try and get enough stops that we might be able to shoot our way back in and that's kind of what happened."
Point Loma shot 8-of-14 (57.1%) from behind the arc in the second half, with Campbell (12 points), Karlberg and Anderson all connecting on triples to cut into PLNU's deficit before a corner 3 from
Jake Lifgren (9 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists), who was one point shy of a triple-double, tied the game at 81-81 with 2:23 remaining.
After CSUSB retook its lead, Karlberg tied it once more with a driving layup at the other end. The Sea Lions then got the defensive stop they needed and were fouled on the rebound, but were unable to convert the front end of a one-and-one with just under a minute to play.
The Yotes came down the other way and went back ahead before forcing a Point Loma turnover. CSUSB then went 4-for-4 from the foul line as PLNU was forced to foul to extend the game, but it was too little too late in what was a regional championship for the ages.
"At halftime our message was just to get to the last media segment within a couple buckets," Logie said. "We got to that point down three. Obviously, we had a chance to tie it, had a chance to take the lead and the ball didn't bounce our way, but I've never been prouder of a group and have never had more fun coaching."
While the result wasn't what the Sea Lions hoped for coming in, the atmosphere in Golden Gym made for a memorable evening.
"The amount of support we had tonight, it was the most fun game I've ever played in," Karlberg said. "I'm just super thankful. This whole year was special. I think the university felt that and our team did as a whole."
This year's group will go down in history for what it accomplished, finishing 29-4 overall after going a perfect 20-0 in the PacWest and winning both the conference regular season and tournament titles.
Point Loma hosted its second-ever NCAA West Regional, reaching as high as No. 4 in the national rankings and going on the second-longest winning streak (25 games) in program history.
"I thought we might have it there at the end, but we gave it everything we had," Anderson said. "We battled and I can't be prouder of this group that Coach Logie put together. I had a great time this year and I have no regrets."
