Damien boys basketball coach Mike LeDuc confirmed Monday that 7-foot senior Nate Garcia, who is the two-time San Gabriel Valley player of the year, fractured his left knee during a nonleague game against Canyon on Dec. 9 and needs surgery that will likely end his season.

Damien played without Garcia in the tough St. John Bosco tournament last week and reached the championship game against host St. John Bosco, California’s No. 1-ranked team on Maxpreps. The Spartans came up short, losing 46-37.

Garcia, who is committed to California Bapist, has been on the team’s mind.

“We played some inspired basketball during the tournament,” LeDuc said. “But more than anything else, we felt really bad for Nate not being able to play and having his season end like this. He’s had a really incredible career and he’s an unbelievable kid and hard worker. He will work hard to recover and be fine. But it’s definitely tough for him and us.”

Garcia has been the inside force and focal point of everything the Spartans have done since his sophomore season. He averaged 19 points and 13 rebounds last year while leading the Spartans to the Baseline League title and CIF Southern Section Division 1 semifinals. The Spartans also reached the CIF Division I Southern California Regional semifinals.

Damien (12-3) has a nonleague game against San Gabriel Academy on Wednesday before getting ready for The Classic next week, which is Damien’s big, annual tournament.

LeDuc isn’t sure what to expect for his team without Garcia, but he liked how it competed during the St. John Bosco tournament.

“Our guys played really well all week, they definitely had Nate on their mind and I was really proud of the way they went about it,” LeDuc said. “We have never really practiced without Nate, but we got an idea of what it looks like. Obviously we have to make a lot of adjustments, but what those adjustments are, I’m really not sure. But we have really good players and we learned this weekend that if we play hard and play the way we’re capable of playing and to our ability, we’re going to compete and that’s where we go from here.”

Damien junior Eli Garner had a game-high 22 points in the Spartans’ 53-42 semifinal win over Fairmont Prep and Garner had a team-high 13 points in their loss to St. John Bosco.

“Everybody has to step up and contribute without Nate, and I thought Eli became more assertive this past weekend and that’s good for him and us,” LeDuc said. “But I expect others will step up and take on bigger roles as we start to figure this out.”

GLENDORA, LOS ALTOS WIN TOURNAMENTS

Glendora and forward/center Colton Gray continued a strong two-week stretch by winning the school’s second straight tournament title.

Glendora (10-3) followed winning the San Dimas tournament by winning its own tournament Saturday, beating pesky Bishop Amat 67-56 in the championship game.

Gray finished with a game-high 32 points to go with 10 rebounds to earned his second straight tournament MVP award.

Glendora’s Max Hilgenfeldt added 10 points and Tanner Gable finished with 13 points and nine rebounds Saturday.

Freshman Aidan Shaw continued to show why he’s one of the area’s best newcomers last week, pouring in a team-high 17 points for Bishop Amat (9-3). Rayshaun White had 16 points and Eli Chavez finished with 15.

Los Altos (9-3) continued its strong start by defeating Fountain Valley 72-69 to win the Savanna tournament Saturday.

Sophomore Kevin Keshishyan led the way with 20 points as four players finished in double figures.

Earnest Johnson had 12 points, Isaiah Meza had 11 and Kylen Kincy had 10 points.