Swanwick Leads Trabuco Hills Past Rancho Alamitos

Rick Swanwick scored 23 points and grabbed 11 rebounds and Randy Kriech added 21 points to lead Trabuco Hills High School to an 84-58 victory over Rancho Alamitos in a Southern Section 3-A first-round game Wednesday at Trabuco Hills.

Trabuco Hills (18-6) led at halftime, 42-29, but Rancho Alamitos (12-10) cut the lead to 58-49 with 24 seconds left in the third quarter before Swanwick scored on a tip-in with 9 seconds left to extend the lead to 60-49 as the period ended.

Swanwick, who made 10 of his 13 shots, then scored six of his eight fourth-quarter points in the first 3 minutes of the period. Trabuco Hills outscored the Vaqueros during that span, 10-1, to put the game out of reach.

The Mustangs will play Savanna in second-round action Friday.

“When they double-teamed him in their zone in the first quarter, Rick recognized the defense and kicked the ball out to our guards, who got some good shots in,” Trabuco Hills Coach Rainer Wulf said.

“When they went into a trapping defense in the fourth quarter, that opened up things for Rick, and he was able to get some easy layups on them.”

The Mustangs, who made four three-point shots in the first period, were led by Kriech, who scored nine of his 14 first-half points in the opening quarter. Tim Manning added eight points during that span and finished the game with 13 points.

Gary Lira led Rancho Alamitos with 15 points.