Pacifica Tournament : Late Run by Lobos Succeeds : Los Amigos Survives Missing Uniform to Beat Pacifica, 69-61

Los Amigos High School had some problems on offense that nearly cost it a victory in the final of the Pacifica Tournament Saturday night.

The Lobos trailed Pacifica most of the game, mainly because of cold shooting in the first half, and Los Amigos Coach Famous Hooks offered a theory as to why his team was unable to find its touch.

Call it the uniform theory.

“We had one of our players forget his uniform and everyone on the team was worried about whether they would all have to change to their other ones,” Hooks said. “We let it bother us and it affected us in the first half.”

The Lobos found the missing uniform and their shooting touch, and defeated Pacifica, 69-61.

An illustration of Los Amigos’ problems was leading scorer Gene Altamirano, who didn’t get his first basket until only five seconds remained in the half.

The Lobos’ full-court press never let Pacifica relax and caused seven turnovers in the first half and 14 in the game.

It still took the Lobos (9-5) 3 1/2 quarters to take their first lead of the game, and fittingly, it came off their defense.

Altamirano stole an inbounds pass and scored a layup with 3:55 remaining to give Los Amigos a 55-53 lead.

Los Amigos went on a 10-3 run to take a 65-56 lead with 55 seconds left.

Although Altamirano had an off-night, guard Jim McGee couldn’t have played much better. He made five long-range jump shots in the second half to keep his team in the game. McGee also came up with several crucial steals for the Lobos.

“With him (Altamirano) out of it, it’s really scary, because he’s our leading scorer,” Hooks said. “But we had some other players come through for us tonight.”

McGee led Los Amigos with 19 points and was named the tournament’s most valuable player.

Altamirano had 16 points, 11 in the second half and J.J. Jenkins added 14.

Pacifica (6-5) was led by sophomore Dustin Bonham, who scored 24 points and center Allen Bruce, who scored 14.

In other tournament games:

Steveston 65, Loara 54--The Packers won the third-place game behind Sean Berda’s 22 points. Rory Brown added 12. Loara (2-7) was led by Todd Eaton, who scored 18 points and Lam Tran , who had eight.

The Saxons were outscored, 17-7, in the third quarter.

Troy 51, Villa Park 38--Guard Mark Rudometkin scored 16 points as the Warriors won the consolation championship game. Steve Shirley added 10 points and Austin Yu had eight for Troy. Villa Park was led by Tom Gray with 15.

The Warriors built an 11-point at at halftime, 28-17.