The victorious Colfax High School boys basketball players wouldn't start their news conference without their fallen leader.

After beating Amador 53-44 Saturday to win the Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV championship at Power Balance Pavilion, the Falcons waited patiently for Chase Mosier to arrive.

Mosier, a 6-foot-3 senior forward and the team's leading scorer at 20 points a game, had his left knee lock four minutes into the game and didn't return. He scored two points.

But for this tight-knit, unselfish group, many of whom have played together since elementary school, there could be no celebrating without Mosier.

With his teammates cheering, Mosier was wheeled into the room on a gurney, his left leg encased in a temporary cast and placed front and center. His teammates draped the title banner over him.

"I got grazed on the side of my knee," Mosier said. "It's just locked up right now."

The third-seeded Falcons (22-9) – unspectacular individually but a force collectively – knew they couldn't let their best player down by going into a funk when he limped off the court with the Falcons up 6-3.

"The first thing going through my head was, 'Oh, crap,' " said senior point guard Austin Oberg, who led the Falcons with 15 points. "But we all stepped up and pulled for each other and came out victorious."

Added Colfax coach Mike O'Connell: "When you lose a guy who puts 20-plus points on the board, that's a big loss. This was the ultimate team win. Guys came off the bench and rallied and pulled for each other and won this game. Everybody did great things. … It's just a great fundamental Colfax-type win."

It was even bigger considering that Amador produced one of the section's biggest upsets by ending top-seeded Modesto Christian's section-record 46-game win streak 56-54 in Wednesday's semifinals.

But the fourth-seeded Buffaloes (25-6) couldn't carry that intensity into Saturday's game.

Amador's two leading scorers, Clinton Tremelling and Austin Johnson, struggled to get their shots to fall, shooting a collective 6 of 24 from the floor.

Johnson, averaging 17.7 points, finished with eight. Tremelling, averaging 16, finished with 15 but didn't heat up until the final quarter, when he scored eight.

Colfax controlled the boards and played solid defense in steadily building a lead that reached 14 points early in the fourth quarter.

It was the Falcons' fourth section title in the last eight years and 24th playoff win in 28 games. They have come under three different coaches: Wade Wolff in 2004, Ron Pucci in 2006 and 2007, and now O'Connell, a guy who, even when he coached and taught at Lincoln High School for 14 years, lived across the street from Colfax High School.

"I bleed green," O'Connell said.

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