PREP BASKETBALL -- Southern Section Boys Playoffs : Burbank Defeats Antelope Valley

Orlando Cepeda Jr. scored 20 points and Gary Lotka chipped in 12 to lead host Burbank High to a 61-51 victory over Antelope Valley in a 3-A playoff game Friday night.

Cepeda and Lotka combined for 22 first-half points to give the Bulldogs a 36-22 lead at intermission and send the visiting Antelopes to their 11th defeat in 22 decisions.

“I just laid back and tried to play the game I knew I was supposed to play,” Cepeda said. “I knew if we just went out and played our game, that we would blow them out.”

The Bulldogs, who never trailed in the game, outscored Antelope Valley in every quarter but the last and had an 18-point lead three different times.

“Giving up big leads has been a fault of ours all year,” Burbank Coach Russ Keith said. “We’d get a 17- or 18-point lead and become complacent, laid-back and a little selfish. Call it lack of a killer instinct or whatever you want to call it, but we’ve let teams back in the ball game all year long.”

Antelope Valley, which was led by Bernard Nichter’s 22 points, 18 of which came in the second half, came to within eight points of the Bulldogs in the fourth quarter, but could get no closer.

“The Cepeda kid hurt us bad; he’s the offensive key to their team,” said Antelope Valley Coach Dan Moore. “I wish we would’ve played the whole game like we played the second half, though. We still may have gotten beat, but the game would’ve been a lot closer than it was.”

Burbank was able to hold guard Walter Briggs, who entered the game averaging 14 points a game, to 11 points and held Nichter to only four points in the first half.

“Our guys just did not have a good game,” Moore said. “I looked around and thought there were impostors in those uniforms. Neither of them had any kind of game.”

The Antelopes, who finished their season with an 11-11 record and a second-place finish in Golden League play, couldn’t stop Burbank from running the fast break.

“When we’re playing our running game the way it’s supposed to be played, there’s nobody who can stop us,” Cepeda said. “When we’re right, everyone wants the ball and that’s the way we want it to be.”

Burbank, which improved its overall record to 19-4, takes on Katella High of Anaheim next. Katella beat Freeway League champion Buena Park, 81-63, Friday night.