Ramona’s Luck Runs Out Against Simi Valley

Ramona High Coach Tony Masi brought his 4-year-old son Kyle to watch his team play Simi Valley in the Southern Section 4-A playoffs on Tuesday at Royal High. Kyle sat on the bench beside his father the entire game and watched with wide-eyed attention, just as he has in each of Ramona’s games this season.

But Ramona’s diminutive good-luck charm didn’t quite work Tuesday night, and in a game that was anything but child’s play, Simi Valley won, 82-55. In the quarterfinals Friday, Simi Valley (26-1) plays Santa Monica, a 90-57 winner over Santa Ana on Tuesday.

Ramona entered the game with a nine-game winning streak and a 22-4 record. Against Simi Valley, Ramona faced a baby-faced team with four junior starters. The young Pioneers gave Ramona a pretty good example of how the game is played on a hardwood playground. Even little Kyle’s presence couldn’t save the Rams.

“Good luck charm? I don’t know,” said Masi. “He was good luck 22 times this year.”

Simi Valley’s number 24--junior center Don MacLean--kept Ramona from winning game number 23. Ramona got into foul trouble early when 6-5 center Thomas Ware was called for his third personal foul halfway through the first quarter. With Ware on the bench, MacLean went to work inside, scoring eight of his game-high 31 points in the first period.

Ware’s short stay in the first quarter was long enough to ignite MacLean, who said Ware was being, well, childish.

“He was doing a lot of talking out there,” MacLean said. “You know, the usual stuff, like ‘You can’t shoot,’ or ‘You can’t play.’ ”

For a while, Ware was partly correct. Simi Valley made just 11 of 25 (44%) in the first half but still led, 34-28, at halftime.

In the third quarter, Simi Valley found the outside touch, hitting on 12 of 15 and building a 15-point lead behind the gunning of guards Travis Bice, a senior, and Butch Hawking, a junior.

The outside shooting was welcome relief for MacLean, the target of a physical triple-team each time he touched the ball. With Simi Valley hitting from outside, MacLean found room underneath, scoring 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting in the quarter.

“They were really surrounding him,” Simi Valley Coach Bob Hawking said. “But you can only get away with that for so long. It’s hard to stop a team when you have four guys averaging in double figures.”

Most of the four added to their averages in the second half. Bice scored 8 of his 16, Hawking 10 of his 12, and junior forward Shawn DeLaittre had 8 of his 13 after intermission.

Simi Valley outscored Ramona, 48-27, in the second half. The Pioneers shot 61% (35 of 57) in the game, six points higher than their season average.