Michael Palmer didn’t achieve the No. 1 goal for his senior season at Cal Lutheran.

He did, however, help lead the Lancers further into the postseason than he had ever been.

The Cal Lutheran senior guard played in his first league championship game on Saturday as the Lancers lost to Chapman (Calif.) 79-51 in the Southern California Interscholastic Association Conference Championships.

One of four teams to qualify for the postseason, the fourth-seeded Lancers upset No. 1 seed Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 54-53 on Friday night to advance to the title game.

Palmer, who scored double figures in three of his final four games, was held to five points as Cal Lutheran fell one game short of qualifying for the NCAA tournament.

"I think we were just emotionally drained," the 2010 Seabury Hall alumnus said Sunday night. "You come off that emotional high on Friday and then you hit rock bottom on Saturday. It’s tough right now."

Palmer, one of two kids from Hawaii playing for the Lancers (Lanaki Apele of Kamehameha-Hawaii is the other.), finished his senior season averaging 6.3 points and shot 42.9 percent from 3-point range.

The team’s long-range specialist, Palmer led the team with 30 makes from long distance, including three in the one-point victory over the Stags on Friday.

Cal Lutheran bounced back from losing by 21 to CMS a week earlier to knock off the league’s No. 1 team.

"They got us on our senior night, so we owed them something," said Palmer, who had 13 points in the game. "We changed it up and brought a lot more pressure and got it done."

Palmer played some of his best basketball late with his career on the line. He scored a season-high 16 points in a 68-56 win over Whittier two weeks ago that the Lancers needed in order to secure a playoff berth. He had 13 in both games against the Stags and shot 50 percent (8-for-16) from 3-point land in his final four games.

"I went all out and played the hardest I could," he said.

Palmer is one of three kids from the 2010 Seabury Hall team still playing at the collegiate level.

He was all set to play at La Verne with three other kids from Hawaii when he changed his mind at the last minute and decided to go to Cal Lutheran.

"It was kind of a spur of the moment thing," Palmer said. "Cal Lutheran was a little bigger of a school and they had my major."

The 6-foot-3 guard stayed busy his four years at Cal Lutheran, playing in 90 games. He averaged a career-high 7.8 points a game as a junior.

Palmer’s shooting helped the Lancers to one of their best seasons ever, finishing with 19 wins and advancing to the tournament final.

"It was the most successful season I’ve had here," Palmer said. "You’ve got to be happy with that."

Palmer will graduate in May with a degree in bioengineering and hopes to get his master’s back home at the University of Hawaii.

After four years in the Los Angeles area, Palmer has gotten used to living near the big city, but can’t wait to hopefully move back to the islands.

"Back home is way more laid back and I feel like the people are genuinely nicer," Palmer said. "Southern California is a great place to go to school and you’ve got the ocean and everything, but the beaches are not quite as nice as home.

"It makes you realize how lucky you are to live in Hawaii."