HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL ROUNDUP : What Coach Didn’t Say Counts as El Camino Routs Oceanside

It would seem this would have been the week for a fiery pep talk from El Camino Coach Ray Johnson, what with his team opening the Avocado League boys’ basketball season against crosstown rival Oceanside.

Instead, Johnson was so disgusted with his team’s performance of late that he decided to try the silent treatment for two days.

Johnson’s reverse psychology apparently did the trick. El Camino came out with more vigor than it has showed all season in a 77-57 laugher Wednesday night at Oceanside.

El Camino’s Travis Gilley, who led all scorers with 29 points, said Johnson’s mood swing was so bizarre that he was beginning to wonder if he still had a coach.

“He wouldn’t say anything good or bad,” said Gilley, who connected on four of five three-pointers. “I thought we were playing with Bobby Knight for a coach.

“He would come in the gym and give us the ball and say nothing. Then he would just walk out of the gym. He told us it almost wasn’t worth coaching, the way we’d been playing. It made us do a lot of soul-searching.”

Oceanside (6-7) might be the team in need of some spiritual guidance today. It had a chance to play El Camino at home without the Wildcats’ big man, Dee Boyer, a 6-foot-9 senior center who is out with a cracked kneecap. But it didn’t take advantage of its good fortune.

“It’s a scary thought that Dee Boyer wasn’t with them,” Oceanside Coach Steve Kinder said.

An even scarier thought was the Pirates’ field goal percentage--a woeful 34% (20 of 61).

Oceanside’s leading scorer, Jerry Garrett, shot was five of 15 from the field. His fellow guard, Carl Mathis, was three for 10. Center Kenya Hunt (five for seven) was the only Oceanside player to shoot 50% or better.

Meanwhile, El Camino hit 52% (26 of 50) of its shots, including seven three-pointers.

Oceanside came out in a matchup zone that Gilley and Jeff Reeves quickly tore apart. Gilley hit all of his three-pointers in the first half to give El Camino (8-5) a 37-26 working margin.

“I figured they’d try to match up against us man,” Gilley said, “but I guess their strategy was to let us try and beat them from the outside. And we beat them.”

Glenn Ankton supported Gilley with 16, and Reeves added 14. Garrett finished with 15; Hunt was the only other Pirate in double figures with 10.