ONTARIO – The game went pretty much the way Los Alamitos boys basketball coach Nathan Berger expected.

Plenty of turnovers, and plenty of fastbreaks.

“Thank goodness we scored how many more points we scored than they did,” Berger said.

Los Alamitos scored three more points than Mira Costa to win 63-60 in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 championship game Saturday at Toyota Arena.

Los Alamitos’ Wesley Trevino (4) drives to the basket as Mira Costa’s Luke Hammerschmidt (14) defends during the CIF Southern Section Division 1 boys basketball championship game at Toyota Arena in Ontario on Saturday, Mar. 1, 2025. Los Alamitos defeated Mira Costa 63-60 in the CIF-SS Division 1 boys basketball championship game. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Los Alamitos’ Wesley Trevino drives to the basket as Mira Costa’s Bryson Bryker (4) and Max Jacobs (11) defend during the CIF Southern Section Division 1 boys basketball championship game at Toyota Arena in Ontario on Saturday, Mar. 1, 2025. Los Alamitos defeated Mira Costa 63-60 in the CIF-SS Division 1 boys basketball championship game. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

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It is the third CIF-SS boys basketball championship for Los Alamitos. The Griffins won CIF titles in 2006 and ‘07 seasons. Berger was a sophomore reserve on the ‘07 team.

Mira Costa committed 21 turnovers while Los Alamitos turned the ball over nine times.

As they have all season, seniors led the Griffins on Saturday.

Senior guard Wes Trevino scored a team-high 15 points and blocked two shots, spectacular blocks that had Trevino reaching balls that were at their apex two feet two feet above the rim.

Senior forward Trent Minter scored 14 points, nine in the first quarter, with a game-high 11 rebounds including four offensive rebounds. Fellow seniors Samori Guyness and Liam Gray scored 10 and nine points, respectively.

Junior forward Tyler Lopez scored 13 points for the Griffins.

Los Alamitos (25-8) and Manhattan Beach’s Mira Costa (29-4) will play in the CIF Southern California Regional playoffs that begin Tuesday. The brackets will be released Sunday.

The Griffins had a 13-point lead, 43-30, early in the third quarter. Mira Costa rallied to tie it 54-54 with 4:26 to go in the fourth quarter.

Los Alanitos tried to pull away again, but Mira Costa’s Mac Bedner was fouled on a 3-point shot and made the three free throws to reduce the Griffins’ lead to 58-57 with 2:50 remaining.

Trevino made a 7-foot jumper in the lane with 2:09 to go. Several missed shots by both teams later, Minter made one of two free throws for a 61-57 Griffins lead with 22 seconds remaining.

Mira Costa’s Christian Kranz made a 3-pointer with Minter all over him with nine seconds left to make it 61-60.

Trevino made two free throws with seven seconds remaining and a desperation 3-point try by Kranz bounced off of the left side of the rim at the buzzer.

Berger set up a challenging schedule for Los Alamitos, a schedule that Mira Costa coach Neal Perlmutter called the toughest schedule in Southern California high school basketball. Berger said the difficult set of games contributed to the Griffins’ ability to tough out Saturday’s win.

“I think our guys were battle-tested throughout the year,” Berger said.

Minter agreed, and pointed to The Classic at Damien tournament in late December when the Griffins played in that prestigious tournament’s top division.

“We played a lot of good teams there,” said Minter, who signed with Colorado School of the Mines. “We played them close. Just seeing that we were able to play with good teams even though we were losing, that we had the grit to do it.”

Los Alamitos boys basketball wins Division 1 title by edging Mira Costa in epic clash

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