SANTA CLARA >> A somber van ride home after a heartbreaking loss was softened a bit when Carmel High’s boys’ basketball team stopped to get something to eat.

Instead of a quiet 85-minute drive back to Carmel from Santa Clara High, the Padres picked themselves up as a group, understanding there is more basketball to be played.

“The coaches were lamenting through plays,” Carmel coach Kurt Grahl said. “The kids started playing a name game. By the time we got home, the camaraderie that we have, they were being 17-year-olds again. It wasn’t a suffering two-hour bus ride home.”

As they left the van, each player fist bumped Grahl. It gave the coach the feeling that Carmel won’t let Saturday’s 66-63 loss to King’s Academy of Sunnyvale in the Central Coast Section Division IV title game sidetrack them from a bigger goal.

“I can’t say enough about how these guys battled,” Grahl said. “We just competed. That’s all you really want. I’m proud of how we played. Our season isn’t over.”

That because the Padres will be seeded into the Northern California tournament, where a single-elimination season begins on Tuesday.

“There’s certainly some things we can work on to improve and get better at,” Grahl said. “But I feel we’re playing our best basketball going into the state tournament. Monterey is the road map to winning a state title.”

The Carmel coach was talking about how the Toreadores were extended an invitation to the state tournament last year in Division IV and went on the road and won five straight games to bring home the county’s second-ever state basketball championship.

In Grahl’s three previous trips to the section finals in his eight-year tenure at Carmel, he’s brought home a title, including last season when it beat Menlo.

“It’s a new season,” Grahl said. “No one will remember what you did at CCS if you put together a run in the state tournament. You feel bad for the kids. But after sleeping on it, we’ll come back Monday and have a chance to rewrite history.”

Carmel came within a game of playing for a State Division III title in 2020, falling in the Northern California title game to St. Mary’s in Berkeley.

“In many ways, it’s a crap shot,” Grahl said. “We’ve never been placed in Division IV in the state tournament. But we’ve been a DIV team in the CCS playoffs each year.”

The anticipation was King’s Academy (23-4) would be ticketed to the Open Division before being knocked from the unbeaten ranks in the West Bay League by eventual Division V champion Priory.

The Knights earned the No. 1 seed in Division IV and played like it, winning their first two playoff games by an average of 20 points.

Running an attack around 6-foot-4 freshman Boss Mhoon, who finished with 22 points, King’s Academy erased a three-point fourth quarter deficit.

“He’s the real deal,” Grahl said. “He’s a load. He’s athletic and aggressive in going to the rim. He shot the ball fairly well. I felt we had a good game plan for them.”

Of Warren Blut’s 26 points for Carmel, 16 came in the first half, forcing the Knights to put an emphasis on slowing down the three-year starting guard.

“They struggled to handle Warren,” Grahl said. “They started to face guard him in the second half. That’s a testament to him and his abilities.”

It also created more opportunities for Hudson Rutherford and Simeon Brown, as 12 of Rutherford’s 17 points came in the second half, while Brown scored 11 of his 14 in the final 16 minutes.

The trio combined for 47 of the Padres’ 63 points, giving them a three-point lead with under four minutes before one sequence turned the tide for King’s Academy.

“They missed a layup,” Grahl said. “There was a scramble, and the kid made the shot and got fouled. That three-point play brought life back into them. Then two of their shooters knocked down a couple of clutch 3s in final two minutes.”

The two-time Pacific Coast Athletic League Gabilan Division champions’ four-point lead became a three-point deficit with 1:27 left, as the teams traded baskets before Carmel got one last opportunity.

“We had a couple of execution breakdowns in the fourth quarter,” Grahl said. “I don’t fault the kids at all. We as a staff have to do a better job in getting them ready for those moments. This team rose to the occasion and really battled.”

Carmel is 19-3 since six players from the state championship football team arrived. Two of those losses are to teams that either won a section title or finished as a runner-up.