AZUSA, CA- The last time San Marcos played in a championship game, it was the 1980's and father of current Knights point guard Stefan Korfas, who is now an assistant coach, led the team. For the first time in school history, San Marcos won a Southern Section championship, with a 67-47 victory against Riverside Poly.
Fittingly, Korfas led San Marcos in scoring with 19 points. With his dad by his side, this title run couldn’t have been sweeter for Korfus. “This is just a dream come true, my dad has always talked about how painful it was to lose a CIF championship game,” he said. “From a young age, I’ve wanted to come back and win one for him.”
San Marcos never lost the lead, and there was only one tie throughout the game. Leading by 12 with just under three minutes remaining, big man Jackson Stormo caught a lob in the post and flushed it home, cementing all momentum in San Marcos’ favor.
With former guard and NBA legend Reggie Miller in attendance, six-foot sophomore point guard Lamont Butler starred for Riverside Poly scoring 19 points. Butler was a perfect six-of-six at the free-throw line for the Bears. Trent Thornton added nine points and Derek Rubidoux scored eight.
“We’ve been relying on being able to shoot the perimeter shot, which opens up lanes for Lamont, and that didn’t happen tonight,” Poly head coach Yancy Dodson said. “The perfect windfall of things going right for them and wrong for us give you a 20-point differential.” Poly failed to edge out San Marcos in almost every major statistical category, and shot 31 percent for the game.
San Marcos took a nine point advantage down the stretch of the first half. Butler drove and scored inside three minutes to cut the Royals lead to single digits, and Rubidoux converted at the rim to complete a brief Poly run. Ryan Godges and Korfus hit outside shots to end the half for San Marcos but Poly scored just before the buzzer, trailing 26-19 after two.
Poly lost the third quarter by just two points, behind solid Rubidoux defense and a continued Butler scoring punch. The outside-inside combination of Korfus and Stormo were too much for Poly to handle, however, as San Marcos ended the third quarter with a 42-33 lead.
Stormo finished with a dominant 17 point, 11 rebound performance in 31 minutes of play for San Marcos. Godges scored 14 on only six shots, hitting four free-throws and two three-pointers.
