Inside Job by Erickson Gives Buena Win Over Westlake

After doing much of its damage from the outside, Buena High went inside, where it was sorely disadvantaged, to take a nonleague basketball game away from Westlake.

Troy Erickson, Buena’s 6-foot off-guard, spun into the lane and hit a short jump shot over 6-9 Kurt Schwan with 15 seconds left to lift the Bulldogs to a 74-73 victory Friday night at Westlake. The field goal was Buena’s first in 2 1/2 minutes as Westlake climbed back into the game after trailing by as many as 9 points in the fourth quarter.

The Warriors led, 66-64, with 3:25 remaining, then fell behind, 69-66, on Erickson’s 18-foot jump shot and Jeff Oliver’s 3-point shot. Westlake then scored on a jump shot by Peter Mladina, a layup by Jeff Maurer and a long field goal by Mike Waggoner, sandwiched around 2 Buena free throws.

Leading, 72-71, and then, 73-72, however, Westlake had trouble handling the ball. The Warriors turned the ball over 3 times in the final 2 minutes and Waggoner missed 2 free throws in the last 46 seconds.

“I thought we were really nervous. Very uptight,” Westlake Coach Greg Hess said. “How many inside shots did we get and not put the ball in the hole?”

Early on, too many. Westlake made 6 of 22 field-goal attempts in the first quarter and 14 of 36 in the first half and still trailed only 33-32 at halftime. Buena, behind 17 second-half points by Oliver, led by 10 several times in the second half when the Warriors made 16 of 27 shots.

“The big problem was down the stretch we had those turnovers,” Hess said, “and I felt Kurt didn’t get on track like he could.”

That would be Schwan, the Warriors’ leading scorer in their first 3 games, of which they won 2. He finished with a game-high 23 points and 10 rebounds. Waggoner, in his first game after an illness kept him out of the first 3, led Westlake with 11 rebounds and scored 21 points. Mladina added 14 points.

Oliver led the Bulldogs with 21 points.