By Brandon HENSLEY

A great, maybe even surprising, season for the Crescenta Valley High boys’ basketball team ended last Saturday at Colony High School when the Falcons lost to the Titans in the CIF Division II-A semifinals, 74-54.

The team will still play in the state playoffs once the CIF finals have concluded.

The Falcons jumped out to a dominating record, racking up wins against non-Pacific League teams in December and after an initial slow start in league – a bad loss at home to Burbank had them at 2-2 – they rebounded and finished second in league, 23-5 overall and 11-3 in league.

And, maybe not for nothing, they started their season unofficially with a one-point win over the alumni in the annual pre-Thanksgiving Day exhibition game, which was notable because the alumni typically take the victory every year.

Led by senior guards Andreyas Boghossian and Alex Zohouralen, senior forward Harout Tahanian, juniors center Chuck Meyer and junior guard Tyler Carlson, the Falcons put together the best season for the program since 2013, when CV lost in the semifinals as well. In fact, both the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons had semifinal appearances by CV. The program hasn’t been able to reach the finals since 1994, when Coach Shawn Zargarian was a junior on that team.

The local area was close to seeing a Crescenta Valley vs. La Cañada final on Saturday, but Colony will be the team now facing the Spartans.

CV, which had won 12 straight games heading into Colony, played it close in the first quarter, trailing only 20-16, but lost its grip in the second and was outscored 20-8. Carlson, who made 10 three-pointers in the quarterfinal game vs. Compton, scored 19 points and Boghossian scored 16.

CV’s playoff run started on Feb. 8, a home game against Diamond Ranch, and a 59-56 win. Then it won against Culver City 69-60 before getting by in overtime at Compton High School 66-62.

  Brandon Hensley