SACRAMENTO >> Losing the game was hard enough for Pacifica Christian’s boys basketball team.

Knowing that Saturday was the end of their time as teammates was more difficult.

Pacifica Christian lost to San Joaquin Memorial 58-47 in the CIF State Division II championship game at Golden 1 Center.

The Tritons finished the season 27-10. The season included winning the San Joaquin League championship, advancing to the CIF Southern Section Division 2A semifinals and winning the CIF Southern California Regional Division II championship.

Pacifica Christian was also the No. 1 team in the Orange County rankings for a time this season, the first time that has happened.

That the season was finished seemed most crushing to Pacifica Christian coach Jeff Berokoff and the Tritons players.

With the team gathered around him in the postgame interview room Berokoff asked, “The most important guy is who?”

To which the players answered in unison, “The guy next to you.”

“I’m really proud of this group,” said Berokoff, who has been the school’s boys basketball coach since the Newport Beach private school opened eight years ago. “I love these guys. I didn’t want it to be over with this group.”

Pacifica Christian struggled offensively Saturday. The Tritons made only 14 of their 45 shots, 31%. A long scoring lapse that started in the third quarter and bled into the fourth took them out of contention.

The Tritons had a 30-27 lead with 5:25 remaining in the third quarter. San Joaquin Memorial went on a 22-4 run from there, and had a 49-34 lead midway through the fourth quarter.

Pacifica Christian was a balanced scoring team all season and was so again Saturday.

Seniors Tanner Deal and Parker Strauss and sophomore EJ Spillman scored 11 points each for the Tritons.

San Joaquin Memorial (26-9) was led by 6-foot-7 senior Mike Davis Jr., who scored 17 points and added 14 rebounds. Panthers senior guard Armari Carraway scored 13 points.

The game was a rematch, as Pacifica Christian lost to San Joaquin Memorial 68-58 in the Damien tournament in December.

It was the first boys basketball state championship appearance for both teams.

Both teams got off to a slow start offensively. Neither team scored until San Joaquin Memorial’s Gerald Perry Jr. scored three minutes into the game. One minute later Pacifica Christian got its first points on a 3-pointer by EJ Spillman.

The first quarter ended in a 13-13 tie.

The teams, which played man-to-man defense throughout the first half, exchanged the lead a few times in the second quarter. The largest lead either team had in the first half was the Panthers’ 20-16 advantage midway through the second quarter.

Logan Stewart made two free throws with 44 seconds left in the second quarter to give the Tritons a 25-23 lead they would take into the third quarter.

Deal was saddened that his basketball time with his teammates is over.

“I’m just going to miss them,” he said, adding that he wished he could have “one more game, one more practice, one more time eating out together. We’re not the tallest or most athletic team but we played our butts off every day. Tonight just wasn’t our night.”