Empire League : Los Alamitos Brakes El Dorado’s Break, 61-58

Los Alamitos High School, stumbling through a mediocre season, gave its followers something to cheer about Friday night with a 61-58 upset over third-ranked El Dorado at Los Alamitos.

The Griffins, who stand 6-feet 6-inches, 6-6 and 6-5 across the front line, used their height advantage to hand the smaller Golden Hawks their first league loss. El Dorado’s tallest starter is 6-2. El Dorado, which had won nine straight overall, is 5-1 in league, 14-2 overall.

“It was a very gratifying win,” said Griffin Coach Steve Brooks, whose team is 3-3 in league and 6-9 overall. “We had a couple of keys. We had to get them in a half-court game and stop their fast break. If we could hold them under 60, we felt we could win.”

Los Alamitos managed to derail the explosive El Dorado fast break with a 38-21 rebound advantage and 67% shooting from the floor with careful shot selection.

“I attribute the high percentage to getting the inside shots,” Brooks said. “When they doubled-teamed us out front, our guards penetrated well and we got the layup.”

Most of the easy shots went to Los Alamitos center Paul Crandall, who made 10 of 11 from the field for a game-high 21 points. Forward Andy Woods was also a big factor for the Griffins with a game-high 13 rebounds.

Los Alamitos took an 18-12 first quarter lead behind 8-for-10 shooting. The Golden Hawks had difficulty finding the range, making only 5 of 17 shots.

The Golden Hawks managed to take a 30-29 halftime lead on Jim Sammon’s 14-foot shot with one second to go in the half.

El Dorado extended its lead to 36-31 on Jim Mansfield’s fast-break basket at 6:02 of the third quarter, but the Griffins went on to outscore the Golden Hawks, 10-2, the rest of the quarter. The key to Los Alamitos’ rally was the Griffins’ ability to limit El Dorado to only one shot. Not once during the streak did the Golden Hawks get an offensive rebound.

With guard J.T. Snow (15 points and 10 assists) and Crandall making key baskets, the Griffins took a 51-43 lead with 3:34 left in the game and managed to hold off El Dorado’s relentless, full-court pressure the rest of the way.

Bart Hakeman, who led the Golden Hawk scorers with 17 points, hit a 15-footer with seven seconds left to close the gap to 59-58. But Tim Irvin of Los Alamitos broke clear of the press for a slam dunk at the buzzer to electrify the crowd with the final margin of victory.

El Dorado, normally an outstanding shooting team, shot only 45% against Los Alamitos, but managed to stay close by forcing 24 Griffin turnovers.

“The turnovers don’t do you much good when you can’t take them down and score,” El Dorado Coach Terry Conley said.

EL DORADO (58))--Mansfield 9, Sammon 12, Hakeman 17, Ramos 12, Cooke 2, Hanna 2, Walker 4.

LOS ALAMITOS (61))--Crandall 21, Irvin 13, Woods 5, Snow 15, Goodman 2, Smith 1, Bell 4.

In other Empire League action:

Katella 73, Cypress 39--Forward Bob Erbst scored 17 points, had 9 rebounds and blocked 6 shots to lead the the Knights to an easy win over the Centurions at Anaheim. Katella (4-2 in league) led, 17-8, after one quarter and 31-18 at halftime en route to the 34-point victory. Steve Bennett and Don Yourstone added 14 points each for the Knights. Cypress made only 19 of 51 field goal attempts (38%) and didn’t have a scorer reach double figures.

CYPRESS (39)--Civitelli 2, Krivashei 7, Bausch 12, Johnson 8, Vreugdenhil 4, Munoz 4, Munellerille 2.

KATELLA (73)--Erbst 17, Bennett 14, Yourstone 14, Linker 8, Donnelly 8, Baldwin 4, Harker 8.

Kennedy 53, Pacifica 43--the Irish overcame the Mariners stall tactics and went on to win at La Palma. Guard Glenn Mares led the Irish, scoring 8 of his 11 points in the second quarter when Kennedy outscored the Mariners, 17-3, to take a 19-7 halftime lead. Darrin Queen added 10 points for the Irish, who are 6-0 in league and 13-3 overall.

PACIFICA (43)--Brown 1, Tejeda 14, Bradowski 7, Hall 4, Shelton 4, Brodt 7, Short 6.

KENNEDY (53)--Bissell 2, Curry 2, Faddoul 4, Galante 9, Lauderdale 7, Mares 11, Queen 10, Green 8.

Esperanza 44, Loara 32--Esperanza ended its four-game league losing streak by beating the Saxons in the Aztecs’ gym. Both schools are 2-4 in league and 6-8 overall.