Oak Park defeats Camarillo in showdown for Coastal Canyon League boys basketball title

It was going to take something special to emerge from the Coastal Canyon League’s tightly packed four-team title race.

Down six points with little more than six minutes to play, the Oak Park High boys basketball rose team to the occasion.

Senior guard Seshsha Henderson had 21 points and six assists and sophomore guard Steven Melina scored 17 points as the Eagles used a 12-0 run in the final quarter of the regular season to surge past visiting Camarillo, 49-45, and take the league championship outright.

“I’m proud of us being able to just push through,” Oak Park coach Aaron Shaw said. “We talk about fighting through adversity.

“On a stage like this, to be able to trust your teammates and get stops and move the ball and make big shots, I felt like it was great Oak Park basketball tonight.”

More: Boys basketball roundup: Oaks Christian, Westlake, Thousand Oaks finish as tri-champions

Under Shaw, Oak Park has won at least a share of the title in the nine of the 10 seasons the Coastal Canyon League has existed. The one year it didn’t — 2019 — Miami Heat rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. was a senior at Camarillo High.

The Eagles have now won 23 boys basketball titles in the past 31 years.

Tyler Hook finished with 13 points, eight rebounds and two steals and Ty Chisholm had 10 points and five rebounds for Camarillo, which had earned its title shot with a seven-game winning streak.

“We made a few defensive mistakes in the second half and we didn’t make enough shots down the stretch, but we still gave ourselves a chance to win,” Camarillo coach Brendan Garrett said. “We’re proud of our guys. It’s a resilient group.”

Oak Park (18-9, 6-2) and Camarillo (18-10, 5-3) entered the night tied atop the league standings.

“When you lose two early in the first half of league, it’s do or die,” Shaw said. “Basically every game has been a playoff-type game for us. … It feels like we’re peaking at the right time.”

Simi Valley (17-11, 5-3) and Moorpark (9-18, 4-4) had been part of a four-team first-place knot as recently as last week.

Ryder Mjoen had 23 points and eight rebounds and Kyle Hoffer scored 15 points as Simi Valley (17-11, 5-3) defeated rival Royal 63-38 on Thursday night to finish tied for second with Camarillo in league. Ace Arnold scored 12 points for the Highlanders, who finished the season 17-11 overall and 0-8 in league.

Powered by Henderson, Oak Park scored 11 of the first 15 points and raced out to a 16-8 lead.

Camarillo responded behind Hook, who scored nine points in the second quarter to give Camarillo its first lead, 23-21, with 1:16 left in the half.

“Two amazing senior guards,” Shaw said of Henderson and Hook. “They’ve gone at each other the last several years.”

Hook splashed a 3-pointer a minute into the second half to give Camarillo its biggest lead, 30-24. But Melina splashed consecutive 3s to tie the game, 30-30.

“He’s a handful,” Shaw said. “They’ve got bigs inside, they’re strong, they play tough defense. To be able to take that punch and come back, I’m proud of our guys.”

Camarillo again threatened to run away early in the fourth quarter. Hook found Chisholm for a layup and Evan Dela Paz buried a 3-pointer to push the Scorpions ahead 41-35 with 6:20 to play.

But Melina responded to both deficits with 3-pointers that kept Oak Park in the game.

“He hit huge shots to step up on this stage,” Shaw said. “It shows you what he’s made of.”

Henderson gave Oak Park the lead for good, 42-41, with a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 3:30 to play.

“It’s a lot of emotions, right? A lot of ups and downs,” Henderson said. “We kept our grit though.”

His runner with 1:19 left completed the title-winning 12-0 run, which gave the Eagles a 47-41 lead.

“My teammates knew what we needed to do,” Henderson said. “We knew that we had to defend the 3. We knew that we had to come out and just defend as hard as we can. And our defense sets up our offense, that’s what really pushed us to get the ‘W.’ ”

Joe Curley is a staff writer for The Star. He can be reached at joe.curley@vcstar.com. For more coverage, follow @vcspreps on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Oak Park boys beat Camarillo in showdown for Coastal Canyon League title