HUNTINGTON BEACH — The Cerritos boys basketball team won the CIF Southern-Section Division 4AA final Saturday with a 60-51 win over Yeshiva University of Los Angeles at Edison High School.
The win gave Cerritos its first CIF-SS boys basketball title.
But there was an even more important number that played a role in Saturday’s title game: 22.
That is the number Ethan Soriano wore for the Cerritos basketball team this season before the senior passed away following a freak accident at basketball practice in November.
The victory over YULA was the team’s 22nd victory of the season.
Cerritos coach Jonathan Watanabe saw the significance before his team entered playoffs.
“He was here tonight.” Watanabe said. “I knew at the last game of league, I happened to look at the schedule. I was like, we have 17 wins, we have to win this game. For some reason it clicked, if we got here, it would be our 22nd win. He’s been with us this whole time.”
Shay Pema led Cerritos with 17 points, five assists and two steals. Tobenna Ozoagu scored 16 points and added five assists. He went 12 of 14 from the free-throw line.
Pema made the biggest impact in the second half.
“In the first half, my shots weren’t hitting.” Pema said. “I knew that I needed to come through for my team and I needed to help them out, so I knew in the third quarter and the fourth quarter that I needed to step it up and help us get that win.”
Alex Gabbay led YULA with 15 points, while Jaden Azeroual led both teams with 10 rebounds, adding two steals and a block on defense to go with his four points.
Cerritos trailed by as many as seven points in the first half before it turned things around in the third quarter.
With two minutes left in the third quarter, Pema hit a 3-pointer to bring Cerritos within five, 35-30, then he drew a foul and made one of two free throws.
He followed that with a fast break layup to bring the score to 35-33 in YULA’s favor with a minute left in the quarter.
Another Pema 3-pointer gave Cerritos its first lead, 36-35, with under a minute left.
Cerritos led 37-35 entering the final quarter.
YULA drew even early in the fourth quarter, and the teams remained tied at 40 with 5:29 left.
That’s when Cerritos pulled away. Six points from Ozoagu and another five from Pema propelled Cerritos to an eventual 60-51 final.
Ozoagu dedicated the win to his fallen teammate.
“Losing Sori was the hardest thing we’ve ever gone through,” Ozoagu said. “This whole season is for him. He is here with us. It means everything for us to win it.”