ANAHEIM — Cypress boys basketball coach Derek Mitchell and his players knew they were going up against arguably the best player in Orange County in Canyon’s Brandon Benjamin in a Crestview League game Friday at Canyon High School.

So, it was no surprise that Benjamin scored a game-high 31points, his average this season.

But Cypress did stop Benjamin on some second-half possessions and kept the 6-6 forward from taking a shot on  key possessions in the final seconds, which enabled the Centurions to grab a 61-60 victory.

The win by Cypress (17-9, 3-3) tightens the race in the balanced league, in which all five teams are among the top 11 teams in the county’s Top 25 rankings.

Canyon (19-7, 4-2), which had taken over first place after its 66-38 victory over Foothill on Thursday, drops to second place and Crean Lutheran (12-10, 4-1) moves into first. The Saints had a 57-53 victory over La Habra on Friday.

The Centurions, who had been in a third-place tie with La Habra, are now in third by themselves while the Highlanders (18-8, 2-4) drop to fourth.

“Benjamin was going off early right, so we had to slow him down,” Mitchell said. “So, we switched up our defense to go zone.

“I think that slowed them down a little bit and we were able to push. Lucky for us, they played three games this week.”

Benjamin scored 13 of his team’s 22 first-quarter points, but the Centurions, who got points from all five starters in the quarter, trailed by only two.

The score stayed close until the Centurions opened the third with a 16-4 run to take a 46-38 lead.

King Birdsong scored seven of his team-high 14 points in the quarter while Cypress held Benjamin to two points.

Benjamin opened the fourth with a basket to give Canyon a 50-49 lead and added eight more points to put the Comanches ahead, 60-54, with four minutes remaining.

But the Comanches then came up empty on four consecutive possessions and the Centurions held Benjamin scoreless over the final four minutes of the contest.

Jackson Houston scored for the Centurions on consecutive possessions and Gavin Kroll hit two free throws to give Cypress a one-point lead with one-minute, 20-seconds remaining.

The Comanches had the ball stripped on the ensuing possession and the Centurions ran the clock down to 15 seconds before turning it over on a shot-clock violation.

Cypress guarded Benjamin closely in the Comanches’ final possession and Rami Awad was forced to put up a long 3-pointer at the buzzer that didn’t come close.

“I thought we took control there at the end,” Canyon coach Nate Harrison said. “We just didn’t execute. We had a bunch of turnovers late that they converted into layups. We struggled in transition defense a little bit where we just didn’t get matched up and gave up layups.

“All credit to Cypress and a ton of credit to Derek Mitchell, who’s a great coach.”

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