2-A Boys : El Camino Doesn’t Let Oceanside Get Close

After the San Diego Section 2-A boys’ championship Saturday in the Sports Arena, El Camino High School Coach Ray Johnson was almost at a loss for words.

He couldn’t find the proper thing to say to his Wildcats, who had just routed crosstown rival Oceanside, 61-35, to end the Pirates’ two-year reign as champions.

“We saved the best for last,” Johnson told his team. “Everything we worked on, you guys did to perfection. We reacted to everything they threw at us.”

El Camino (25-3) played a nearly flawless second half to extend a 24-19 halftime lead and win its first section title. Oceanside had won three of the last four 2-A titles.

“It’s about time some people start giving credit to this team,” Johnson said. “We’ve been very good the last two years, and we have not gotten the type of recognition we deserve.”

El Camino forwards Kenny Crawford and Steve Heard did most of the damage offensively Saturday, scoring 20 and 15 points respectively. But it was the defense that made the difference.

In the second quarter, the Wildcats switched to a 2-3 zone that frustrated Oceanside. Three straight times, the Pirates’ Junior Seau went inside on the Wildcat zone and had his shot blocked.

It only got worse for Seau, who entered the game as Oceanside’s leading scorer. After scoring 10 points, he fouled out midway through the third quarter.

Hitting 29.6% (16 of 54) of their field-goal attempts didn’t help the Pirates. “We played a good part of the game behind by a large margin, and we just can’t play like that,” Oceanside Coach Bill Christopher said.

Oceanside had made the final by playing smart, slow-tempo basketball and developing a reputation for winning the close ones.

But El Camino wouldn’t let it be close Saturday. With guard Edmond Johnson running the fast-break offense, the Wildcats took advantage of Seau’s absence and opened a 10-point lead late in the third quarter.

Then, with time running out, Johnson sped the length of the floor and flipped a pass inside to Heard, who scored at the buzzer to make it 38-26.

Behind Crawford, who hit two jumpers and scored on a rebound basket, El Camino went on a 13-2 run to start the fourth quarter. By the time Oceanside scored its second basket of the period, it was 51-30.

“We kept hearing how Oceanside always wins the big ones,” Heard said. “We just decided to go out there and show everybody that they shouldn’t forget about El Camino.”

El Camino had won the league championship and Oceanside had finished second, but, in a newspaper article, Avocado League coaches had picked Oceanside to win.

“Once we saw that, we really got fired up,” Crawford said. “We knew it was time for us to get the job done.”