Serra Falls to El Toro in Tourney of Champions

El Toro High School point guard Bret Johnson is used to passing a ball. But this fall he did all his passing with a football.

Thursday night, however, in the quarterfinals of the San Dimas High Tournament of Champions, Johnson was directing basketballs through the traffic. His deft passing stymied Serra’s aggressive full-court press and led El Toro to a 76-58 victory at Cal Poly Pomona.

Bret Johnson skippered El Toro’s fast break and fed forward Khari Johnson and center Cory Wayland inside on a nine-point run in the fourth quarter that sealed Serra’s doom. During that quarter, Serra connected on only 3 of 23 field goal attempts and El Toro outscored them 22-8.

“We love to run the ball,” said El Toro Coach Tim Travers. “We wanted to beat Serra down the floor so they couldn’t set up their traps under the basket.”

As a result, Serra, a team of sprinters, was outraced by the hustling Chargers, who spread the ball all over the court and got even scoring from all positions. The 6-5 Wayland scored 20 points and pulled down 16 rebounds, and forward Eric Speaker had 24 on outside jumpers, including four three-pointers.

Khari Johnson added 18 points, 12 in the third quarter when El Toro hit 9 of 12 from the field. He also did a good job of blanketing Serra star James Moses, who cam in to the game averaging 37 points but was held to 22.

“We knew Moses was going to get his points,” Travers said, “but I told Khari to make him work for them.”

Khari Johnson’s aggressive defense limited Moses to only 8 of 22 field goal attempts. Three were three-pointers.

Serra Coach George McDaniel was disappointed with the way his Cavaliers shot the ball in the second half.

“They lost composure and fell completely apart,” McDaniel said. “They tried something else than the offense I taught them.

“They were taking poor shots--off-balanced and falling backward. That’s pitiful. They weren’t even squaring up for the baskets.

“But maybe a loss like that’s good for the hardheads, when you’re trying to teach them the game.”

Guard Deon Figures made two three-pointers and finished with 16 points and five assists for Serra, and 6-7 forward Gerald Boagni added 6 points and grabbed 7 rebounds.

Bret Johnson finished with 11 assists and added 10 points and 4 steals. One assist was a neat Alley-Oop pass that Khari Johnson punctuated with a slam to give El Toro (5-1) its first lead of the second half.

At quarterback this fall, Bret Johnson led El Toro to the Southern Conference championship and shared conference player-of-the-year honors with Santa Monica’s Glyn Milburn. And Thursday night he showed he passes basketballs as well as footballs.

“It’s a tough transition from football to basketball, but you have to make the adjustment as quickly as possible,” Bret Johnson said. “You know you won’t get that shooting touch back right away, but you’ve got to hustle and make things happen.”

The tone for the second half was set when Wayland swatted away a shot by Boagni and Bret Johnson threaded through Serra’s press hook a behind-the-back pass to Khari Johnson for a lay-up.

“The press doesn’t really phase this team,” Bret Johnson said, “All of our big guys can handle the ball pretty well.”

Serra (3-3) will take on Fallbrook in a consolation game tonight at 6 p.m. In other Tournament of Champions action:

Inglewood 49, Santa Clara 48--Harold Miner connected on a long-range jumper late in the fourth quarter to give Inglewood (4-4) a 49-48 win over Santa Clara in a consolation semifinal.

Miner finished with 26 points, nine rebounds and three steals and shot 10 of 18 from the field. Guard Bobby Sears added nine points and seven assists for Inglewood. John McGill led Santa Clara with 17 points.

“We didn’t force the ball in to Miner and I think that frustrated them,” said Inglewood coach Vince Combs. “He picked his spots to score. He’s a smart kid.”

Inglewood will take on Edison of Fresno in a consolation semifinal at 3 p.m. In other games, Westchester (5-0) will play Diamond Bar in a championship semifinal at 7:30 p.m., and Morningside will go against Long Beach Poly in a consolation semi at 3.