South Coast League : Mission Viejo Picks Right Time for Off-Night

Bob Minier, Mission Viejo High School basketball coach, said this happens every year. Usually, toward the end of the season, his team will come out flat for a game, play with little emotion, shoot poorly, make bad passes, use bad judgment.

The Diablos did all of that and more Wednesday night in their South Coast League game against El Toro at Mission Viejo High.

And they still won, 59-48.

Give you an idea about how El Toro played? It should.

Mission Viejo picked the perfect night to get a bad game out of its system. The Diablos did all they could to assist the Chargers, but El Toro wouldn’t cooperate.

The Chargers had their shot. They simply kept missing shots.

El Toro made only 17 of 49 shots from the floor (35%). The Charger also turned the ball over 19 times.

“We had some guys play out of character tonight,” El Toro Coach Tim Travers said.

Charger guard Bret Johnson, who usually plays a leading role on offense, made 2 of 19 attempts. The Chargers’ passing game was sloppy, committing six consecutive turnovers in the first quarter.

Yet, remarkably, El Toro was still in contention at the end. Mission Viejo held an 11-point lead with 2:30 left and, just as Minier was yelling for his team to run down the clock, Scott Pedersen’s alley-oop pass attempt to Tim Knowles went well over his head and out of bounds.

Jeff Stone, who scored a game-high 19 points for the Chargers, made a jump shot to bring El Toro to within nine, 51-42. Another Mission Viejo turnover and Cory Wayland’s two free throws made it 51-44 with 1:51 left.

Then, as Minier was screaming for his team to slow down and use up the clock, Knowles forced a pass inside that was stolen. But Johnson missed an outside shot on the other end and Jeff Herdman made two free throws to put the Diablos back in charge.

Jeff Billups, who scored a team-high 15 points for Mission Viejo, then made two jumpers and Herdman added two free throws in the final 40 seconds as the Diablos pulled away.

“I was just glad to win and get out of there,” Minier said. “You did not see us at our best. I’m not happy.”

On the bright side for Mission Viejo, the Diablos clinched a playoff berth with the victory. Mission Viejo (9-2 league, 19-6 overall) is in second place, two games ahead of Irvine (7-4), with one to play. El Toro drops to 6-5 league, 12-11 overall.

If the Chargers defeat San Clemente and Mission Viejo defeats Irvine Friday night, El Toro and Irvine will finish in a tie for third place and will meet in a playoff game Saturday night to determine the league’s third tournament representative. Irvine can clinch third place by defeating Mission Viejo.

Todd Mathews and Herdman each added 12 points for Mission Viejo. Eric Speaker added 11 points for El Toro.

EL TORO (48)--Tobey 4, Johnson 9, Wayland 5, Speaker 11, Stone 19.

MISSION VIEJO (59)--Billups 15, Mathews 12, Pedersen 8, Knowles 8, Herdman 12, Kelly 2, Barrett 2.

Capistrano Valley 90, Laguna Hills 68--The Cougars completed their league season with a 12-0 record (24-2 overall) after their easy win over the Hawks at Laguna Hills High. Shawn Reed scored 18 points and Nathan Call added 15 to lead Capistrano Valley.

Three other Cougars--John Waikle (13 points), Jason Trask (10) and John Davey (10)--helped offset a game-high, 24-point performance by Laguna Hills’ Greg Nelson. The Hawks are 1-10, 3-17.

CAPISTRANO VALLEY (90)--Call 15, Stark 4, Waikle 13, Reed 18, Balagot 4, McCullough 4, Davey 10, Trask 10, Montez 8, Stoker 4.

LAGUNA HILLS (68)--Colburn 11, Nelson 24, Hardy 9, Kawada 8, Sheff 8, Moravick 8.

San Clemente 63, Dana Hills 58--Senior center Mike Stedman had 20 points and 19 reounds and senior forward Garry Wade had 22 points as the Tritons kept the Dolphins winless in league. Eddie Esteban (15 points) and Dave Lyon (16 points) were the leading scorers for Danna Hills (0-11, 6-14). John Valdez scored 15 points for San Clemente (4-7, 11-13).

DANA HILLS (58)--Esteban 15, Crawford 2, Lloyd 6, Lyon 16, Jones 5, Cmelak 10, Duby 4.

SAN CLEMENTE (63)--Wade 22, McGraw 6, Steadman 20, Valdez 15.