Prep Basketball : Southern Section 3-A Playoffs : Brea Puts an End to Valencia’s Season

Following Brea-Olinda High School’s final Orange League game against Valencia, Wildcat Coach Gene Lloyd raved about how well his team was playing defense, particularly when it came to altering the trajectory of opponents’ shots.

Friday night in the first round of the Southern Section 3-A playoffs at Brea-Olinda, the Wildcats continued to play such tenacious defense in a 53-29 mismatch victory over Whittier, the third-place entry from the Whitmont League.

The considerably taller Wildcats altered many of the Cardinals’ shots Friday. They altered them back into the Cardinals’ faces, into the stands, to each other. Whittier’s shots were going everywhere, it seemed, except toward the Brea basket.

The Wildcat defense was so stifling that it held the Cardinals to less than 10 points in three quarters and no Cardinal player scored in double-figures.

That’s not surprising, considering that the Whittier team didn’t make it to double-figures until late in the second quarter and wound up trailing at halftime, 22-11. The Cardinals didn’t score again until 2:25 was left in the third quarter when Bobby Santos managed a free throw. By that time Brea was ahead, 27-12.

Wildcat center Kevin Walker scored 16 points. He spent half of the game on the bench because of foul trouble. The Cardinals could come up with no real defense to stop him.

When Walker was out of the game, David Fox picked up the slack, scoring 16 points, mostly on long jump shots from the top of the key.

While the victory was hardly artistic and the opponent hardly challenging, the Wildcats are delighted because the school has a history of being upset in the first round of the playoffs. Both the 1982 and 1984 teams lost their opening-round playoff games.

Brea advances to the second round where it will play Montclair, an 85-69 winner over Rancho Alamitos.