San Fernando Shakes Up Narbonne With Late Binge, 82-67

Joe Mauldin is about as predictable as an earthquake when he comes swooping in toward the basket.

The San Fernando High guard will slam home a vicious one-handed jam one time, then miss an easy two-handed breakaway dunk the next.

His Tiger teammates were equally inconsistent for much of Friday’s 82-67 victory over Narbonne before finally putting the Gauchos away in the final period of the first-round City Section 3-A Division playoff game at San Fernando.

“Ragged,” was how Coach Dick Crowell termed his team’s 16th victory in 21 games this season.

“I’m just not satisfied,” Crowell said. “They’ve had it easy for so long that they think they can get away with stuff. But when it comes to the playoffs, it gets tougher.”

The Tigers were in tough against Narbonne (8-10) early. The Gauchos led, 19-17, after one period before San Fernando took control in the second quarter.

Guard Tory Stephens, who hit 1 of 6 shots in the first period, was 4 of 6 (including two three-point shots) in the second quarter and scored 11 points as the Tigers jumped to a 40-31 halftime lead.

But San Fernando missed 5 of its first 6 shots in the third period and had difficulty extending its lead until Mauldin went on a breakaway binge midway through the quarter.

On one fast break, Mauldin simply banked the ball in for a 44-34 Tiger lead. Seconds later he attempted a two-handed dunk but came up short and the ball caromed off the rim. Mauldin rebounded the miss for a 12-point San Fernando advantage.

Mauldin stole the ball a moment later and roared in for a thunderous one-handed jam that gave the Tigers a 50-36 lead.

But the pesky Gauchos cut the advantage to 54-46 by the period’s end, scoring 10 of the last 14 points in the quarter.

Stephens, who led all scorers with 29 points, came alive again in the fourth period, scoring 10 points as the Tigers hit 6 of their first 7 shots to pull away for good. Narbonne missed all 10 of its fourth-quarter shots.

Mauldin, who made 10 of 15 field-goal attempts, finished with 24 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds and 4 steals.

“I think they were all a little tight and tense because they knew it was playoff time,” Crowell said. “But we’ve sort of always played at the level of our competition.”

James Johnson led Narbonne with 21 points.

San Fernando meets Jordan on Wednesday in a second-round game.