Empire League : Katella Easily Beats Esperanza, 69-50, but Danley Is Not Happy

Katella High School had four starters score in double figures Friday night in a 69-50 Empire League win over Esperanza in front of 600 in the Knights’ gym --but not everyone was impressed.

Katella (2-2, 10-3) seemed to do little wrong in overpowering smaller Esperanza (1-3, 5-7). The Knights made 29 of 58 shots from the floor, outrebounded the Aztecs, 48-14, and caused 14 turnovers with a pressure defense.

But the postgame comments of Katella Coach Tom Danley, sounded as if his team had just lost by 19 points, rather than the opposite.

Danley spent several minutes in the locker room voicing his displeasure with the team’s play, then emerged with a synopsis.

“Struggling,” he said. “That sums it up pretty well.

“We’re not playing consistent and we’re not drawing (good play) from the bench. We’re playing against ourselves and that’s too bad because we’re better than this.”

When reminded Katella outrebounded Esperanza by 34, Danley said: “Exactly, we should have blown them out in the first half.”

Instead, the Knights had a 31-27 lead at the half and needed a strong second half from center Shawn Donnelly and guard Don Yourstone to hold off the less-talented, but improved Aztecs.

Yourstone made 5 of 6 from the floor in the second half, hitting several jumpers from the top of the key and ended with 14 points. Donnelly scored 11 points and had 10 rebounds just in the second half. He also converted two three-point plays, back-to-back in the fourth quarter that all but sealed the win. The 6-4 senior finished with 13 points and 14 rebounds.

Katella was led by Bob Erbst with 21 points and 14 rebounds and 4 blocked shots. Guard Steve Bennett added 10 points. Esperanza was led by Doug Sheets with 13 points and Ron Ziuraitis with 12.

El Dorado 67, Cypress 58--Bart Hakeman scored 10 of his game-high 25 points in the third quarter as the Golden Hawks pulled away from the Centurions in the game played at Cypress.

El Dorado, which had only led by four points at the half, increased its lead to 20 points at one time in the third quarter.

The win was the Golden Hawks’ fourth straight in Empire League play. El Dorado is 4-0 in league and 13-1 overall.

Cypress’ Darren Johnson had 16 points and Eric Krivashei had 15. The Centurions are 1-3 in league.

Kennedy 51, Loara 42--Forward Jeff Green scored 13 points and guard Phil Galante added 11 as the Fighting Irish (4-0 and 10-3) defeated the Saxons in La Palma. The victory was the fifth straight for Kennedy and its seventh in eight games.

The Fighting Irish outscored Loara, 15-6 in the second quarter to take a 25-17 halftime lead. Gary Miller had 13 points to lead the Saxons.

Los Alamitos 80, Pacifica 53 --The Griffins led by only one at halftime, but thanks to the second-half performances of senior center Andy Woods and senior guard Sean Bell, Los Alamitos won easily.

Bell scored 10 of 20 points in the second half. Woods, who led the Griffins with 17 points, scored 14 of those after halftime. The Griffins’ junior guard, J.T. Snow led all players in assists with six. Senior guard Robby Goodman had five assists.

The victory improves Los Alamitos’ record to 5-8 overall, 2-2 in league.