Prep Wednesday : FINAL SCORE: 6-4 : San Clemente’s Playoff Stall Against Sierra in 1979 Set Records for Lack of Action

“After that game, I had to leave the country.”

--Todd James, former Sierra coach, now living in Ireland.

Come on, it was only one high school basketball game. Just one of 16 played in the first round of the 1979 Southern Section playoffs.

But, (yawn) what a game.

It won’t be remembered for what happened, but what didn’t happen.

Sierra 6, San Clemente 4.

For 32 minutes, the Tritons and Spartans turned back the clock to the days of peach baskets. The game set Southern Section records--dubious as they are--for fewest points by a winning team (6), fewest points by a losing team (4) and fewest points by two teams (10).

It is also the state record for the fewest points by two teams.

“I get a chuckle out of it,” said Rich Skelton, then San Clemente’s coach. “I’ve told people that we may have set the game of basketball back 30 years that night.”

Maybe longer.

The Southern Section record for fewest points by two teams had stood for more than 53 years: Fillmore 10, Van Nuys 6 in 1926.

But on the night of Feb. 23, 1979, Fillmore and Van Nuys were stalled right out of the record books.

It would be easy to blame Skelton and the Tritons, a team of attrition, not transition.

However, Sierra and its coach, Todd James, were willing partners. The Spartans were content to sit in their zone defense and allow San Clemente guards Brian Mulligan and Rusty Adams to play catch most of the evening.

Sierra even went into a stall of its own for 7:42 of the fourth quarter before losing the ball, which led to the offensive outburst of four points in the final 10 seconds.

“It takes two teams to create a score that low,” said Skelton, now Dana Hills’ coach. “It proved to be very interesting for the people who saw it. I guarantee it’s something they’ll never forget.”

There were only 14 shots taken in the game, eight by San Clemente and six by Sierra. Only three players scored. Ross Sutton had four points for the Tritons, Steve Egbert scored four and Jeff Masters two for the Spartans.

“It was really boring,” Mulligan said. “I mean, really boring.”

Actually, San Clemente wasn’t supposed to have much of a chance.

Sierra was considered to have its best team since the school won the Large School championship in 1966. The Spartans finished the regular season 19-5 and were champions of the Whitmont League.

It was also Sierra’s last basketball team. The Whittier school was closed in June because of declining enrollment.

“It was our last year and everybody in the whole school wanted to be a part of it,” said Egbert, now a professional golfer living in Santa Ana. “We would sell out every home game.”

The Spartans started four players 6-foot-4 or taller--Egbert, Rick Towery (6-4), Richard Bracone (6-5) and Masters (6-4).

San Clemente’s tallest starter, Sutton, was 6-2. Mulligan and Adams were listed at 5-6, which was generous, according to Skelton.

Mike Wade (6-1) and freshman James Hill (5-10) started at forwards.

“We weren’t any good,” said Mulligan, now the basketball coach at Orange Glen High School in Escondido. “Ross was an adequate high school scorer. Rusty and I were good high school ballhandlers. Wade was smart as hell. We just had to hide Hill a lot.”

The Tritons didn’t run much and sometimes not at all. They defeated Irvine, 36-31, in five overtimes, four of which were scoreless. They had also lost to Dana Hills, 21-16, in a South Coast League game.

By winning its final three games, San Clemente finished 14-9 and tied for second in league. They qualified for the 2-A playoffs as the league’s No. 3 team and had to travel 250 miles to Lompoc to play in the wild-card game.

“I scouted them that night and they destroyed Lompoc (53-39),” said James, now a missionary in Ireland. “Lompoc was a team just like us, big and slow. San Clemente pulled them out of their zone and scored a lot of easy baskets because they were quicker.”

Fearing that the same thing, James was determined to keep the Spartans in their zone.

And Skelton wasn’t about to play against Sierra’s zone, because he believed his team would not be able to rebound.

“Their smallest player was 5-11 (guard Rick French),” Skelton said. “And he was taller than three of my players.”

It was a stalemate waiting to happen.

The game, which was played in front of a packed house at Sierra, opened with a normal pace. Hill, a good leaper, won the tip and the teams traded missed shots.

Then it happened.

“Skelton called timeout and said, ‘OK, stall,’ ” said Adams, now a stockbroker in Los Angeles. “I don’t remember why, but we did it.”

Mulligan stayed at midcourt and Adams positioned himself along the sideline in front of San Clemente’s bench.

“All we did was play catch,” Mulligan said. “Every once in a while, Ross would pop out and we’d throw it to him, just so he could stay active.”

After a turnover, Masters scored with 1:18 left in the quarter. Sutton followed with a basket to tie the score 14 seconds later. San Clemente got the ball back and ran out the final minute of the quarter.

Hill again won the tip to start the second quarter and the Tritons went back into their act.

“After the first 4 or 5 minutes, it seemed like no one was paying attention to the game,” Egbert said. “I was looking in the crowd, at my mom, at my girl friend. I really wasn’t paying attention to the game.”

Egbert wasn’t the only player who was bored. Although he had the ball in his hands most of the time, Mulligan was getting restless.

“I’d been holding the ball for about 2 minutes, just standing there with it on my hip,” Mulligan said. “Finally, I made a little jab step, like I was going to make a move to the hoop. But there wasn’t anybody within 30 feet of me. Skelton jumped out of his seat and looked at me. I don’t think I was a great pleasure to coach.”

It was still 2-2 at halftime, as San Clemente held the ball the entire quarter.

By halftime, the crowd had reached the point where booing wasn’t enough. Several times, fire crackers were set off in the gym.

“We were walking to the locker room at halftime and this guy leans over the railing and said to me, ‘Hey . . . why don’t you shoot the ball,’ ” Mulligan said. “I pointed to Skelton and said, ‘I ain’t making the decisions, he is.’ ”

Said Adams: “The crowd was getting very hostile. I can’t say I blamed them. I remember Skelton telling us not to worry about the crowd, that we should stay with our game plan. He also said it would be nice to win the tip to start the second half.”

Hill did and the Tritons were back in business.

“In those days, we had jump balls to start every quarter, instead of alternating possessions,” Skelton said. “That was the key to holding the ball and James Hill could leap.”

San Clemente lost the ball late in the quarter on a turnover. Sierra worked the ball around for the final 2 minutes, looking for a good shot.

“They were slow on offense too,” Mulligan said. “The difference was, they were working for a shot. We weren’t.”

Masters missed a jump shot, but Egbert rebounded and scored for a 4-2 lead with 10 seconds left in the quarter.

Egbert outjumped Hill to start the fourth quarter, giving Sierra the ball. But instead of attacking, the Spartans went into their delay game.

“I think that may have been a mistake,” James said.

Said Skelton: “We weren’t going to push the issue too much. We were happy to be in the game.”

With 2 minutes left, the Tritons committed their first foul, forcing the Spartans to make an inbound pass. Skelton hoped his team could come up with a steal.

It worked.

With 18 seconds left, Egbert dribbled toward the basket and was separated from the ball. Sutton recovered it and called timeout.

Mulligan then fed Sutton for a 10-foot jumper that tied the score, 4-4, with 10 seconds left.

“We were thinking overtime,” Skelton said.

But not the Spartans.

They worked the ball upcourt quickly and Egbert got the ball with 4 seconds left. He sank a 25-foot shot with 1 second left.

“The place went crazy, fans were running onto the court,” Adams said. “They had to clear the court so we could inbound the ball. It took several minutes.”

Mulligan missed a half-court shot at the buzzer and the crowd again surged onto the floor.

The Tritons were hustled off the court and a security officer was placed at their locker room door.

“If we would have won that game, we would have needed an armed escort to get out of there,” Mulligan said.

Sierra reached the semifinals before losing to Moreno Valley. Skelton coached two more seasons at San Clemente before resigning.

James finished his studies at the Grace Graduate School, a seminary in Long Beach, and left for Europe the next year.

“I tell you this, the coach who breaks that record is going to get a telegram from Ireland congratulating him,” James said.

Tritons Fall, 6-4

(Yes, That’s Right)

Headline from Orange Coast Daily Pilot

Feb. 24, 1979

SAN CLEMENTE (4)

FG FT-FTA TP Rusty Adams 0 0-0 0 James Hill 0 0-0 0 Brian Mulligan 0 0-0 0 Ross Sutton 2 0-0 4 Mike Wade 0 0-0 0 Totals 2 0-0 4

SIERRA (6)

FG FT-FTA TP Steve Egbert 2 0-0 4 Rick Towery 0 0-0 0 Jeff Masters 1 0-0 2 Richard Bracone 0 0-0 0 Rick French 0 0-0 0 Totals 3 0-0 6

Fouls: San Clemente 3, Sierra 4

San Clemente: 2, 0, 0, 2,--4 Sierra: 2, 0, 2, 2,--6 HOW THEY SCORED (Time left in quarter) First quarter 1:18, Sierra--Masters field goal. Sierra 2, San Clemente 0 1:04, San Clemente--Sutton 15-footer. San Clemente 2, Sierra 2 Third quarter 0:10, Sierra--Egbert layup off rebound. Sierra 4, San Clemente 2 Fourth quarter 0:10, San Clemente--Sutton 10-footer. San Clemente 4, Sierra 4 0:01, Sierra--Egbert 25-footer. Sierra 6, San Clemente 4