SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA REGIONALS : Woodbridge Rebounds, Wins, 59-49 : Warriors Get Another Chance; Keefe Leads Them Over Kearny

If a team needs to come back from the dead, and that team happens to be the Woodbridge High School boys’ basketball team, there is no question about who is going to be the guy giving the mouth-to-mouth.

The resuscitator, Adam Keefe, went to work Tuesday night, leading Woodbridge to a 59-49 victory over San Diego Kearny in the Southern California Regional Division II playoffs at Mira Mesa High School.

The Warriors, whose season seemed over Saturday afternoon after they lost the Southern Section 2-A championship to Banning, earned an at-large berth in the Division II playoffs on Sunday.

The Warriors (23-6) advance to Thursday’s regional semifinals. Woodbridge will travel back to San Diego to play Madison, a 75-50 winner over Tustin Tuesday.

“We’re like the guy on the operating table who was brought back to life,” Woodbridge Coach Bill Shannon said. “You don’t get a lot of second chances.”

And when you do get a second chance, you don’t mess around with what works. Though Shannon changed his starting lineup--starting P.A. Emerson to compensate for Kearny’s tall front line--Woodbridge’s goal, as always, was to get the ball inside to Keefe.

Keefe, who said he is starting to feel a little beat up after a 29-game-and-more-to-come season, scored 31 points and had 20 rebounds.

He scored 10 points in the first quarter to give the Warriors a 19-8 lead. In the second quarter, he didn’t score at all, picking up two quick fouls and sitting down for more than four minutes.

With Keefe on the bench, and 6-foot 8-inch Garth Anderson out with a sprained ankle, the Warriors struggled. They turned the ball over five times and hit just 2 of 13 shots from the field in the second quarter, but made 6 of 8 from the free throw line and had a 30-17 halftime lead.

But in the second half, Keefe came back with a vengeance, scoring 13 points in the third quarter and adding 8 more in the final quarter.

Kearny, which started out playing its customary zone, switched to man-to-man in the second half, with the Komets’ best player--6-6 Randy Robinson--on Keefe.

“But how are you going to play man-to-man with a guy like that?” Kearny Coach Bill Peterson said.

Kearny couldn’t find a way to stop Keefe, and, at least in the first half, couldn’t find a way to score. Woodbridge doubled Kearny’s point total in the first quarter and in the second the Komets couldn’t hit a basket until less than two minutes remained in the half.

“Someone stole our uniforms,” Peterson said. “That wasn’t my team out there.”

Kearny, which finishes 24-6, was also an at-large entry. The Komets upset Torrey Pines in the San Diego Section Division II semifinals, but lost in the final, 54-53, to Madison.

Robinson, who is described as a power forward but who hung around the perimeter much of the game, finished with 17 points and 9 rebounds. Two other Kearny players--6-1 guard Chris Ortiz with 14 points and 6-7 center John Williams with 11--scored in double figures.