South Coast League Roundup : Kostoff Hits 8 3-Pointers to Spark Capistrano Valley

When Capistrano Valley High School guard Chris Kostoff said, “I was in a groove,” after the Cougars beat South Coast League rival El Toro, 84-81, Friday, he was talking about something along the lines of the San Andreas fault.

Kostoff scored 28 points, 24 coming on 3-point shots to help Capistrano Valley (18-4 overall, 8-0 in league play) hold off repeated El Toro rallies, rallies that ended only when Rob Johnson’s 3-point try missed as time ran out.

Kostoff actually wasn’t Capistrano Valley’s leading scorer--that was Scott McCorkle who had 29. But McCorkle had 23 of those in the first half, a majority coming on shots over the El Toro zone.

“I was really surprised they didn’t bring someone out on me,” McCorkle said. “As long as they were going to lay off, I was going to shoot it.”

McCorkle, a junior forward who came into the game averaging 25 points a game, shot 15 times in the first half and made 10 of those, including four 3-point shots. But he scored only six in the second half, his last points coming on two free throws with 42 seconds left in the third quarter.

Kostoff, who had 8 points in the first half, really started to roll in the third quarter with four 3-point shots as Capistrano Valley took a seemingly comfortable 68-56 into the fourth quarter.

But that was at the point that El Toro’s Rob Johnson, who had had a good game to that point scoring 14 points, started to have a great game. Johnson, who made five 3-pointers himself, scored 18 points in the fourth quarter to finish with 32.

By the time Johnson made his eighth point of the quarter, El Toro (13-10, 3-5) had drawn to 73-70 with 3:44 left.

El Toro had drawn to within three, 77-74, when Kostoff launched a 3-pointer from the corner as two defenders rushed at him. He made it and Capistrano Valley led, 80-74, with 1:20 left.

Johnson answered with a 3-pointer to draw El Toro back to 80-77 with 1:01 left. Two free throws made by center Steve McCaughey gave Capistrano Valley a 82-77 lead with 47 seconds left, but Capistrano Valley Coach Mark Thornton made an illegal substitution and was assessed a technical foul.

Johnson made both free throws to bring El Toro to 82-79. Capistrano Valley’s Bill Mazurie made two free throws to put his team up 84-79 with 34 seconds left, and Johnson made two of his own to bring El Toro back to an 84-81 deficit. Johnson then missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

Kostoff missed the front end of a 1-and-1 opportunity with 10 seconds left and Johnson dribbled the length of the court and launched his doomed 3-point attempt.

Dana Hills 61, San Clemente 38--Mike Fedden scored 17 points and John Lloyd 14 to lead Dana Hills (14-11, 2-6) at San Clemente. Lloyd also had 9 rebounds and Fedden 8. Eddie Morgan scored 13 points for San Clemente (4-16, 1-7).