Three Orange County boys basketball teams are in the CIF Southern California Regional finals.
Two of the teams are Crean Lutheran, which was No. 2 all season in the Orange County boys basketball top 25, and Foothill, ranked No. 11 in the final county top 25.
Also playing in a Southern California Regional final Tuesday night is La Quinta in Division V.
The Aztecs never appeared this season in the county top 25. They were 1-3 to start the season and finished second to Santiago in the Garden Grove League. They lost by 19 points in the semifinals of CIF-SS Division 5A, the section’s lowest division, and were seeded 12th out of 16 teams for the Division V regional playoffs.
La Quinta (22-11) will be the visiting team for the fourth straight time in the regional playoffs Tuesday night, taking on Chaffey (23-12) in Ontario at 6 p.m.
La Quinta coach Mark Sanchez and the Aztecs had their goals for this season.
“We really thought we would be a contender for first place of our league,” said Sanchez, in the fifth season of his second stint as La Quinta’s coach. “Unfortunately, we got hit with some COVID issues and we had some kids out here and there. We always knew we had some potential, so we thought we could get to the (CIF-SS) semifinals and we thought we might get to the finals.
“But the regionals? That was never on my radar.”
The Aztecs landed in their Southern California Regional final with their three road wins over higher-seeded opponents. They beat Rosamond, a team that was 25-1, 65-59 in the first round, CIF-SS Division 5AA champion Villanova Prep 61-60 in the second round and CIF-SS 5A champion Fontana 66-59 in the semifinals Saturday.
Viggo Nguyen, a 5-9 senior guard, scored 24 points and made four 3-pointers against Fontana. Shuaib Tahir, a 5-11 senior guard, scored 20 points with four 3s.
Nguyen and Tahir have been La Quinta’s top two players all season, Sanchez said, as they were Saturday against Fontana.
“I always thought we had two really good players, and if they caught fire at the same time we’d be difficult to beat,” Sanchez said. “And they have been producing simultaneously.”
Chaffey, which lost to Villanova Prep 75-69 in the CIF-SS 5AA championship game, features 6-6 forward Dejon Clark and 6-2 point guard Jonathan Jackson.
“Like everyone else, they’re going to be bigger than us,” Sanchez said. “We look at these teams sometimes and we wonder, ‘How are we going to compete,’ and then we go out there and compete.”
Sanchez said Nguyen is “the toughest kid I’ve ever coached.”
“Not only is he a great offensive player,” Sanchez said, “he’s also the guy we say, ‘You’re going to guard their toughest player,’ and that’s usually going to be a kid who’s a foot taller than Viggo but he’s in there battling.”
Tahir has been playing at his best in recent weeks.
“He’s had his consistency issues,” Sanchez said, “But, man, is he producing right now. Not only can he shoot the 3 well but when they come out hard on him he can get to the basket.”
La Quinta is one win away from playing in its first CIF state boys basketball championship game. The Aztecs are not favored. As usual.