Meek Stands Tallest as No. 7 San Pasqual Rolls Past El Camino

By the time El Camino’s Dee Boyer went nose-to-nose with San Pasqual’s Erik Meek, Friday night’s matchup of the top two big men and top two teams in the Avocado League had long been settled.

Still, the way Meek held his ground against Boyer after the whistle blew with four minutes remaining spoke volumes about how the rest of the game had gone.

Meek, a 6-feet-10 junior, never gave an inch to Boyer, a 6-9 senior. He scored 31 points, grabbed 18 rebounds and blocked five shots in No. 7 San Pasqual’s runaway, 78-67 victory.

The home loss was just the fourth for eighth-ranked El Camino in the past six years, with two of those defeats coming to San Pasqual.

The victory puts San Pasqual (14-5, 7-1) a half game behind El Camino (15-6, 8-1) in the league race.

Boyer and El Camino seemed to be on the defensive from the beginning; San Pasqual ran off six points before the Wildcats scored a point. Eventually, El Camino climbed back into the game and even took a 15-14 lead with 2:00 left in the quarter. But all the while, Boyer and forward Sean Scurry were getting into foul trouble.

Scurry picked up his third foul with 2:14 left in the first quarter, and Boyer picked up his fourth when smacked Meek across the wrist three minutes before halftime with San Pasqual already ahead, 33-24.

“I thought they really had some momentum at that time in the game, and I just didn’t feel I could take him out,” El Camino Coach Ray Johnson said. “We were in a diamond-and-two (defense), and Dee wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near Meek on that play.”

But he was.

“I wish I wouldn’t have fouled him, but he was trying to dunk on me, and I wasn’t going to let him,” Boyer said.

But Meek ended up making two free throws. And dunking on Boyer was one of the few things he was prevented from doing.

After scoring 11 first-quarter points on Boyer, Meek took a rest in the second quarter, scoring only five. But with Boyer on the bench with four fouls, Meek stepped on the gas in the third quarter.

He drove at will on whoever was attempting to guard him and went to the backboards as if he was trying to break the county rebounding record. In one stretch, he scored 16 of San Pasqual’s 20 points as the Eagles lead reached 20.

“He just kind of turned it up a notch,” San Pasqual Coach Tom Buck. “He thought, if the ball was coming off the rim, he was going to get it.”

Boyer, who has signed with Lamar University, finished with eight points and 11 rebounds.

“I’m really upset,” Boyer said. “I feel I let the team down a little bit.”

Heath McCoy led El Camino with 19 points.