BERKELEY >> La Mirada senior Kai Labasan stepped to the free-throw line with 9.1 seconds left and his Matadores tied at 70 in double overtime on Saturday.
No pressure, right? Just a chance to win the CIF State Division II boys basketball championship against Archbishop Mitty of San Jose.
Labasan missed the first and without hesitation, he gathered himself and fired the second shot.
Nothing but net.
The Matadores (31-5) then survived a last-second shot attempt by Mitty’s Cameron Korb before celebrating a 71-70 win at UC Berkeley’s Haas Pavilion to clinch the program’s first-ever state championship.
• WATCH: Highlight’s of La Mirada’s state championship victory
An unlikely source gave Labasan extra confidence after his first attempt bounced off the rim.
“I learned in an NBA commercial to have short-term memory, so I don’t even remember missing,” Labasan said. “As far as I’m concerned, I made both.”
La Mirada won on the strength of hitting 14 3-pointers and forcing 19 Mitty turnovers. The Matadores only had nine turnovers against the much taller Mitty players.
“They did a great job taking away our driving lanes. It wasn’t by plan to shoot that many 3s, but we want to shoot the ball confidently, and that’s what they gave us,” La Mirada head coach Bryce Jones said.
• PHOTOS: La Mirada celebrates beating Archbishop Mitty in state final
La Mirada trailed 50-38 late in the third quarter before rallying behind Kendall Lauderdale, who played most of the fourth quarter with four fouls but scored eight of his 18 points in the period.
“I really didn’t worry about the four fouls. I had to play smarter and keep my hands straight up to deal with (Mitty’s) Ben Kone,” Lauderdale said. “I believed we could pull this out.”
Vittorio Reynoso-Avila made a layup with 25 seconds left in regulation to make it 62-59. Lauderdale then missed a free throw with 10.5 seconds left and Mitty’s Sebastian Much, who had 20 points, sank a long 3-pointer to at the buzzer to force overtime.
“That play could have killed us, but the fact it didn’t says a lot about the resiliency of these guys,” Jones said
Labasan hit a 3-pointer in the first overtime that made it 65-64 before Mitty (20-11) tied it on a free throw with 37.7 seconds left. The Matadores took a 70-65 lead but had to survive another rally from Much that tied the game.
Without calling timeout, Jones let his team run its offense, and Labasan drove to the basket only to be fouled, and he made the free throw for the win.
Dezmon Murphy finished with 18 points while he and Lauderdale had to contend with Kone, who had 22 points and 14 rebounds.
“I have never played against someone like him. I respect him a lot,” Laurderdale said.
Reynoso-Avila added 14 points and eight rebounds as the Matadores finished a historic season in which they won the most games in school history and advanced to the program’s first state championship game.
“It’s hard to put into words just how big this is,” Jones said. “Just being in the Southern Section finals was a big deal for us.
“We’ve had a lot of great players and teams, but we’ve never been on a run like this, so it’s really special for us.”
This article has been updated from an earlier version to correctly identify Kai Labasan as a senior.
