South Coast League : Mission Viejo Beats El Toro, 50-48

Ever had one of those days when everything just seems to go your way? The kind of day when you find a $20 bill in your laundry and somebody picks up the tab at lunch. Bob Minier had one of those on Friday.

For starters, the Mission Viejo High School coach watched his team make just 6 of 12 free throws and only one field goal in the fourth quarter of a tight game, and still win. The Diablos somehow managed to hold off El Toro for a 50-48 South Coast League win in front of a capacity crowd of 2,000 in the Mission Viejo gym.

Minier would have taken that and gone home to begin counting blessings, but there was more. Down the road, Laguna Hills was recording its first league win with a 46-45 upset of Capistrano Valley in the Hawks’ gym. A night that could just have easily seen the Diablos drop further off the pace of the league-leading Cougars ended with Mission Viejo and Capistrano Valley possessing one league loss.

Wednesday night, Mission Viejo was beaten by Capistrano Valley, 61-54, casting the Cougars in the role of the team to beat in the league race. After Friday night, Capistrano Valley has only a half-game lead.

“I guess if Laguna Hills can beat Capo, anything can happen,” Minier said, adding that he felt fortunate indeed to beat El Toro on a night when his team was more than a little inconsistent.

Minier can thank his son, Mike, for delivering the big points. After David Hill missed the front of a one-and-one with 54 seconds to play, Mike Minier grabbed the rebound and was fouled with 52 seconds left. Minier, who has missed only two free throws since league play began, hit both ends of the one-and-one and Mission Viejo had a 49-46 lead.

Scott Shockey’s 20-footer cut the Diablos’ lead to 49-48 with 39 seconds remaining. Hill added one free throw to make it 50-48 with 33 seconds left, plenty of time for El Toro to work for the potential tying basket. The Chargers went without a timeout and worked the ball around before Tim McLain pulled up and took a jumper from the top of the key with six seconds left. It missed, and Jeff Herdman grabbed the rebound for the Diablos. Mission Viejo had averted the upset.

El Toro Coach Tim Travers said he was hoping to get the ball to either Shockey or McLain for the attempt to send the game to overtime.

“We didn’t want to call time out because we didn’t want to give them a chance to set up their defense,” Travers said. “We wanted to play it through.

“Tim got a good shot. He’ll make that more often than not. It just didn’t go this time.”

El Toro kept it close throughout, but had its last lead at 6-4 early in the first quarter. Mission Viejo made the shots that mattered most, and El Toro simply did not.

“We just didn’t make the big plays,” Travers said. “Every time we got two points down, we came down and rushed a shot or turned it over.”

Mission Viejo appeared to be off to a good start after taking an 18-11 lead at the end of the first quarter. But things shifted quickly in the second quarter. The Diablos went without a field goal (0 for 11 from the floor) and were outscored, 11-6.

“We played spotty,” Minier said. “With that cold spot in the second quarter, we were making one or two passes, then taking a long shot. You just can’t do that.

“We didn’t draw them out and make them work on defense, and we let them get in position for the defensive rebound.”

The Diablos rebounded in the third quarter by hitting 9 of 14 shots from the field and took a 42-37 lead into the final period. Minier, who finished with a game-high 18 points, had eight in the third quarter and Hill had six of his 14 in that period.

Minier said he saw shades of Wednesday night’s loss to Capistrano Valley when the Diablos struggled in the second quarter Friday.

“We did almost the exact same thing,” he said. “We were up by three at halftime, and we went into a real cold spell. We looked at the charts the next day, and saw we out-rebounded them by two, made two less turnovers, but they just shot better in the second half.”

Shockey led El Toro with 14 points. A two-point loss in the opponents’ gym was not too difficult for Travers to deal with.

“I think we’ve proven we can play with the good teams in this league,” he said.

EL TORO (48)--McLain 6, Shockey 14, Stone 8, Kunsaitis 6, Moynihan 8, Markert 2, Myers 4.

MISSION VIEJO (50)--Desiano 4, Minier 18, Knowles 10, Hill 14, Mohan 1, Herdman 3.

Laguna Hills 46, Capistrano Valley 45--Senior forward Greg Halliday made a five-foot jump shot with four seconds remainning to give the Hawks to the upset win at Laguna Hills.

The The play was set up to go to Laguna Hills’ center Bryan Seiling, but he fumbled the ball and Halliday grabbed the loose ball and made his short jumper.

Laguna Hills’ Bryan Seiling, a 6-4 center, led all scorers with 19 points. Laguna Hills is 1-3 in league and 9-8 overall. Shawn Reed’s 13 points led Capistrano Valley.

CAPISTRANO VALLEY (45)--Reed 13, Manley 8, Lukes 4, Call 8, Bujnovsky 10, Waikale 2.

LAGUNA HILLS (46)--Garcia 6, Seiling 19, Conradt 9, Ringler 6, Halliday 6.

Dana Hills 52, San Clemente 51--The Dolphins led by nine points at halftime, 31-22, and then held off a Triton rally to win at San Clemente. Dana Hills (3-2, 12-4) was paced by senior center Bryan McSweeney’s 23 points and 12 rebounds while teammate Eddie Esteban added six assists. Tony Villanueva had a game-high 24 points for San Clemente. DANA HILLS (52)--McSweeney 23, Mathieu 10, Jeffers 5, Lyon 7, Esteban 7.

SAN CLEMENTE (51)--Wade 14, Love 4, Villanueva 24, Thomas 3, Greenberg 4, Koepsell 2.