Damien delivers a title for Mike LeDuc with 65-57 win over Clovis North in CIF State Division I boys basketball championship
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - In his 42nd year as a head coach, Damien’s Mike LeDuc won his first CIF State championship as the Spartans took down Clovis North 65-57 in the Division I boys basketball championship on Friday night in the Golden 1 Center.
Damien led by double digits for the majority of the game, but the Spartans were outscored 21-12 in the final quarter as they struggled to close the game out against Clovis North’s pressure.
Damien’s Spivey Word scored 11 first-half points and RJ Smith added 10, including a vicious two-handed jam in the second quarter, to give the Spartans’ a 33-22 lead at halftime.
After the third quarter, the Spartans’ lead ballooned to 17 points at 53-36. Damien played active defense and consistently scored on the break to build their 17-point edge.
Kaleb Smith scored nine points in the third quarter and finished the night as Damien’s leading scorer with 23 points. Word had 17 points and RJ Smith scored 15.
Clovis North sophomore Connor Amundsen, son of head coach Tony Amundsen, scored a game-high 25 points in the loss. He kept the high octane, bracket-busting 13th-seeded Broncos in the game, but overall Damien was just a bit too strong.
LeDuc has won 1,018 career games between his time at Glendora and Damien. His only other state title appearance came in 1989 with Glendora, an 89-83 loss to Menlo-Atherton in a game Tracy Murray scored 64 points.
This is Damien’s second state title in school history. The Spartans won a state championship in 2015 under Matt Dunn.
