SHP Nor Cal DIV champs

But the stakes were much higher Tuesday night as the winner would be crowned Nor Cal Division IV champs and earn a spot in Saturday’s state championship game.

And it appeared Half Moon Bay was poised to exorcise its CCS demons as the Cougars built an 11-points lead going into the fourth quarter and maintained that advantage midway through the final period.

But the Gators got hot from deep, senior point guard Alex Osterloh came up big as he has all season and a pair of free throws with under a second left to play secured a wild 53-51 win for second-seeded SHP, sending head coach Jeff Wulbrun to his first CIF state title in his first year with the Gators.

“They know our personnel so well. We know their personnel so well,” Wulbrun said. “We didn’t get down (trailing by 11).

“An improbable comeback for an improbable team. The kids didn’t lose faith.”

SHP (20-11) will take on San Juan Hills-San Juan Capistrano (21-14) in the Division IV state title game at noon Saturday at the Golden One Center in Sacramento. San Juan Hills, the No. 3 seed in the So Cal section, upended No. 2 Granada Hills, 66-61, in the So Cal title game.

Fifth-seeded Half Moon Bay (19-12) led 49-38 with 4:16 left to play following a Levi Meighan 3-pointer. But the Cougars went nearly four minutes before Meighan connected again, giving HMB a 51-49 lead with 31 seconds left.

But after his teammates got SHP back in the game by knocking down 4 of 6 3s in the fourth quarter, the Gators then leaned on Osterloh down the stretch and he delivered. After his layup tied the game at 49-all, he tied the game at 51-all with 10 seconds left, coming off a pair of screens down the lane, one of which shielded Half Moon Bay’s 6-9 center Owen Perez from making a play.

The Gators then forced a Cougars’ turnover with seconds left, only to foul Osterloh in the backcourt with point-seven seconds left on the clock.

It would not have mattered if not for the fact it was Half Moon Bay’s fifth foul of the quarter, putting the Gators in the bonus and Osterloh at the free throw line.

He canned both and moments later, he and the Gators were celebrating a win with the SHP student section.

Osterloh finished with a team-high 21 points.

“[We] made winning plays. That wasn’t coaching. We turned up the heat, defensively. … It was a cumulative effect,” Wulbrun said. “The players know that (to get the ball into Osterloh’s hands).”

It was a wild end to a game that was in the balance almost the entire 32 minutes. HMB built an early 7-4 lead, but SHP (20-11) answered with a Zack Beals 3-pointers, a three-point play from Osterloh and a pair of free throws from Alberto De Bernardis as the Gators would lead 16-14 after the first quarter.

The adrenaline seemed to wear off in the second quarter as both team struggled to put the ball in the basket. But it was in the second quarter that Meighan started to warm up. He scored on a baseline layup to put the Cougars up 18-16 early in the second. He then knocked down a pull-up jumper for a 22-21 lead.

But the teams combined for just 16 points in the second and the game was tied at 23-all at halftime.

In the third quarter, Meighan caught fire. It started innocently enough, as he banged his way in for a tough finish at the rim to open the second half. He followed that with a spinning jumper off the dribble and when he drained a heat-check 3 for his own personal 7-0 run, the Cougars were up 30-23.

Coming out of a timeout, Brady Grossman knocked down a 3 to quiet the Cougars briefly, but Meighan wasn’t done. He scored off the bounce for his ninth straight point, and followed that with a fastbreak layup, taking a Gio Garduno-Martin baseball pass to give Meighan 11 straight points as the Cougars led 34-26 with 2:01 left in the third.

“We couldn’t stop him,” Wulbrun said of Meighan, who lit up the Gators for a game-high 29 points.

His scoring was needed because the Gators did a good job of bottling up HMB leading scorer Garduno-Martin, who finished with just 10 points.

But his only 3-pointer of the night gave the Cougars their biggest lead of the game, 39-26, with under a minute to play in the third before Osterloh scored on a drive to the bucket to cut the SHP deficit to 11 going into the fourth.

But a slashing drive for a basket from Garduno-Martin and a three-point play from Meighan kept the Cougars lead at 11, 44-33, with 5:38 to play. And when Meighan knocked down a 3 with 4:16 to play, HMB was up 49-38.

But the Gators didn’t go away. De Bernardis and Grossman each knocked down a 3 to key a 11-0 run that culminated with the first of Osterloh’s driving, game-tying layups as he scored the last six points for SHP.

“Im just so proud of [my team],” Wulbrun said. “I told John (HMB head coach John Parsons) I’m sorry a team had to lose.”

In the Division III Nor Cal final, fourth-seeded Priory (23-7), the defending Division IV champ, will not get a shot a DIII state title as the Panthers fell to third-seeded Cornerstone Christian-Antioch (28-8), 73-65.