ORANGE COUNTY PREP BASKETBALL : Pacifica Tournament : Pacifica Wakes Up, Beats Loara, 51-40, to Advance to Final

With his team leading by only four points (25-21) at halftime, Rhett Heckel, Pacifica High School basketball coach, decided that his team wasn’t playing with enough intensity.

Heckel instructed his team to hold the ball at midcourt every possession of the third quarter in an attempt to bring Loara out of its zone defense and quicken the pace.

Unfortunately, the move backfired, as neither team would change its style of play.

The result: 12 points scored by both teams in the third quarter, eight by the Mariners.

They still had the lead (33-25), but it took another decision by Heckel--a full-court press in the fourth quarter--to eventually shake Pacifica out of its lethargic state and defeat Loara, 51-40, in the championship semifinals of the Pacifica Tournament in Garden Grove Friday night.

“We just didn’t have any intensity tonight,” Heckel said. “We looked real flat and I think we took Loara lightly.

“I wanted to them (Loara) to go to a man-to-man defense, but we needed the press to really get things going.”

Pacifica’s slowdown actually proved to be beneficial for the cold-shooting Saxons, who only scored 11 points in the second and third quarters.

The Saxons surprisingly didn’t take any practice shots at halftime, and it showed.

Loara (2-6) still cut the lead to 39-34 on a Rich Hagerman jump shot with 3:44 remaining, when the Pacifica press took over.

Any thoughts of a rally ended there, however, as the Mariners came up with several steals under their own basket and scored eight straight points to take a 47-34 lead with two minutes left. Five players scored in the run, with Dustin Bonham scoring four.

“We felt we could pressure their guards and they wouldn’t be able to pass over our taller players,” Heckel said.

Another advantage the Mariners had was 6-foot 5-inch center Allan Bruce. Loara’s tallest player is 6-3, and although Bruce didn’t get the ball as often as Heckel wanted, he still scored 14 points.

“We felt that they wouldn’t be able to contain him,” Heckel said. “He was our one advantage and we tried to use it.”

With the victory, the Mariners advanced to the championship game against Los Amigos tonight at 7.

Mike Short added 12 points and Bonham had 10 for Pacifica. Todd Eaton scored 14 points and Paul Plettnick had 12 for Loara.

In other Pacifica Tournament action:

Los Amigos 86, Steveston 58--John Jenkins scored a season-high 31 points and Gene Altamirano 22 for the Lobos, who advance to the final tonight at 7.

Troy 42, Savanna 30--Jeff Ferren scored nine points to lead the Warriors (8-4) in one consolation semifinal. Neither team had a player in double figures and the Rebels shot only 19% (10-53). Troy shot 38% (15-40).

Troy plays Villa Park today at 3 p.m. for the consolation championship.

Villa Park 59, Cantwell 48--Tom Gray scored 17 points to lead the Spartans. Mike Tucker scored 13 and Chris Storck 15 for the Villa Park. Villa Park plays Troy in the consolation championship.