Garner, Thomas Lift Rio Mesa to Victory Over Host Beverly Hills

For Jeff Garner, it doesn’t get much tougher than it did Wednesday night against Beverly Hills High.

The Rio Mesa forward had 2 of his first 3 shots blocked and flat missed the other. Then, late in the quarterfinal game of the Beverly Hills tournament, someone stepped on his left foot. The same foot that has a broken small toe attached to it--the product of a freak accident Saturday.

“It’s throbbing, pounding,” Garner said while seated on the trainer’s table under the stands, his toes dangling in a bucket of ice. “But it was a close game. There was no way I could come out.”

Garner stayed in and led Rio Mesa to a 67-58 victory. He scored 17 points, including 3 consecutive 3-point shots in the first and second quarters, and grabbed 8 rebounds.

The Spartans (3-0), the second-ranked team in the Southern Section 4-A Division, play St. Bernard at 9 p.m. Friday.

“I had a couple of shots blocked inside, and I knew I had to come back,” Garner said. “I got a couple 3-pointers and knew I was back in business.”

Rio Mesa’s Eric Thomas, although still feeling the effects of a flu, had a game-high 25 points and had 8 rebounds. Thomas hit 2 of his 3 fourth-quarter field-goal attempts and Garner nailed 3 of 3.

Rio Mesa Coach Steve Wolf reasons that production from those two players is a necessary part of the game plan.

“What I’ve told Eric and Jeff is they have to be impact players,” Wolf said. “At the end of the game, they have to come through.”

They did, but only because a lack of rebounding made the game close. A much smaller Beverly Hills lineup outrebounded the Spartans, 47-31.

“If you let a team outrebound you by 16, you should lose,” Wolf said.

Probably, but the Normans (4-1) made only 8 of 33 field-goal attempts in the second half while Rio Mesa made 12 of 27. Not much better, but better nevertheless.

When Beverly Hills closed to within 3 with 1:10 left, Rio Mesa’s Chad Worden pulled through with 2 steals and 3 points in the final 30 seconds. Worden earlier was good on 3 consecutive 3-point shots and finished with 12 points.

Beverly Hills was led by Randy Taylor, Fred Dardashti and Michael Moore, each of whom had 13 points.

The Normans led for much of the first half, and again, 46-45, with a minute remaining in the third quarter. That was to be their last lead, however, in what turned out to be a difficult and emotional win for Rio Mesa.

Buena 58, Notre Dame 50--One night after an emotional first-round win over rival Crespi, the Knights came out cold in the first quarter and never recovered in the quarterfinal game.

Notre Dame was outscored, 17-8, in the first 8 minutes and had to rally to pull within 33-28 by halftime.

Buena (4-0) won despite scoring only 3 field goals in the fourth quarter. The Knights countered with 9 points in the final period.

Despite scoring only 6 points in the first half, Brian Jones had a game-high 21 points for Notre Dame (3-4). No other Knight scored as many as 7 points.

Notre Dame will play Ventura in the fifth-place semifinals at 6:30 tonight.