Vegas’ Eldorado Overturns Simi Valley’s Perfect Record, 61-50

Turnover is a nasty word in this town. It reminds people of losing money.

The word also will remind the Simi Valley High basketball team of how they lost a perfect record here Thursday night.

Eldorado High of Las Vegas dealt the Pioneers their first defeat of the season, 61-50, in the championship quarterfinals of the Sundevil Basketball tournament by taking advantage of 24 Simi Valley turnovers.

Those mistakes--10 of which came in the second quarter--resulted in 20 Eldorado points.

The Sundevils also out-rebounded their taller opponents. Eldorado had 25 offensive rebounds to Simi Valley’s 10.

“We did a very poor job of screening out and they took full advantage,” said Pioneer Coach Bob Hawking. “We talked about it before the game, at the half and during timeouts and we never did anything about it.”

Simi Valley (6-1) led, 39-37, after three quarters, but Eldorado’s furious attack on the backboards took full affect in the fourth period as the Sundevils scored their first eight times down the court.

Robert Jefferson, a reserve forward, sparked Eldorado’s comeback with nine points--his only points of the game--during a three-minute span in the middle of the fourth period.

Simi Valley trailed, 44-43, when Jefferson went on his scoring binge. He started the streak with a layup off of an offensive rebound, and ended it with a free throw after another offensive rebound.

“He’s not a starter, but sometimes he plays more minutes than our starters,” Eldorado Coach Sherrill Stephens said of Jefferson. “He seems to be more effective off the bench. He gives us the extra push when we need it.”

Thursday night, it was more of a shove.

The Pioneers trailed by one point at the half, despite turning the ball over eight of its first 10 times down the court in the second period.

Simi Valley had a 16-12 lead after the first period, but the Pioneers were shut out for the first five minutes of the second quarter.

Don MacLean finally ended the streak by hitting a seven-foot jumper in the key. The 6-8 sophomore center led all scorers with 25 points and he also had 18 of Simi Valley’s 42 rebounds.

Shawn DeLaittre, a sophomore forward, was the only other Pioneer player to score in double figures. He had 10 points.

Hawking had few excuses for his team’s poor performance after the game. “I really can’t explain why we gave the ball up so much,” he said. “They really weren’t all that aggressive and pressuring on defense. We just threw them the ball.

“We never expected to go undefeated for the season. This loss will hopefully get our attention.”

SIMI VALLEY--Gates 0; DeLaittre 10; MacLean 25; Hankins 8; Bice 2; Johnson 1; Jenner 2; Wilcox 2.

ELDORADO--Stark 5; Washington 8; Langford 15; Smith 12; Davis 4; Bellamy 6; Jefferson 9; Malone 2.