GOLETA >> For a program making its first-ever appearance in a CIF-Southern Section boys basketball final, the Western High team sure acted like it belonged.

Despite a slow start on the offensive end, the Pioneers rode a suffocating defense and leaned on the second-half effort of Ahmad Hammouri to defeat host Dos Pueblos 65-49 in the Division 4A championship on Friday night.

Hammouri scored 27 of his game-high 35 points in the second half, including six 3-pointers. Thomas Dinh finished with 16 points with four 3s.

FINAL

Western 65, Dos Pueblos 49

The Pioneers have won their first CIF basketball title in school history!!

Ahmad Hammouri had 35 pts, including 6 3ptrs.@ocvarsity @WHSPios pic.twitter.com/y1uZdnTLN4

— David Delgado (@DavidDelgado_OC) February 26, 2022

Western coach Marc Harrison was grateful for the journey that led to the monumental victory.

“It’s very surreal but unbelievably exciting,” he said. “We didn’t have an easy road, we weren’t even in the top 16 at the end of the polls. We were ranked 20th today in Maxpreps, by the way, coming in, and that (Dos Pueblos) was the No. 1-ranked team (in the Division 4A Maxpreps poll).”

The Pioneers (19-9) held second-seed Dos Pueblos (23-9) to its lowest point total of the playoffs and allowed just eight points in the third quarter to turn a one-point halftime deficit into an 38-30 lead entering the fourth quarter.

Hammouri’s 3-pointer tied the game at 24-24 early in the third, a few minutes later Dinh hit a 3-pointer and Jameson Labasan’s floater forced the Chargers to call time out with 4:54 remaining in the third and Western leading 33-26.

Western’s Ahmad Hammouri scored 27 of his game-high 35 points in the second half, including six 3-pointers, as the Pioneers defeated Dos Pueblos on Friday to win the CIF-SS Division 4A championship. (Photo by David Delgado, Contributor)

Hammouri went on to score 10 points in the third, including a buzzer-beater to end the quarter.

“Our whole team knows, when Ahmad is making shots we’re really hard to beat, and we kept pushing him to shoot the ball and take the shot he’s supposed to take,” Harrison said.

But it was the Pioneers defense that kept getting stops, forcing turnovers and drawing charges which frustrated the home team.

“(If) we play defense, we keep ourselves in the game until we start making some shots,” Harrison said, “and once we got a little separation, I think the pressure got to them a little bit once we got up a little bit.”

Alex Burns provided strong post defense and controlled the boards by collecting 10 rebounds for Western.

The Pioneers went nearly six minutes without knocking down a field goal in the first quarter, with Keith Davis providing the first basket to make it 6-2. The Chargers went up 8-2, but then Hammouri and Dinh hit back-to-back 3-pointers to tie the game.

Hammouri added another shot from beyond the arc to give Western an 11-10 lead after the opening period.

Krue Court’s half-court shot appeared to beat the buzzer to give the lead back to Dos Pueblos, but the officials ruled the shot came after the buzzer.

Grant Hughes had a team-high 20 points for the Chargers and Kael Rillie added 11 points.

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“Offensively, we didn’t execute very well in the first half, we turned the ball over a lot more than we usually do,” Harrison said. “We missed some shots that we normally wouldn’t miss and that’s part of the game, but the kids kept believing.”