4-AA BOYS : Press Lets Tustin Run Past Sunny Hills in Stretch

Tustin High’s press helped the Tillers score 12 consecutive points in the final five minutes of a 61-46 victory over Sunny Hills in a 4-AA playoff game Tuesday at Sunny Hills.

Tustin (19-7) will play Mission Viejo Friday night.

Sunny Hills (10-13) narrowed the gap to 48-45 on Bertrum Mayweather’s field goal with 5:30 remaining. But Sunny Hills did not score again until the final 23 seconds.

“We ran out of gas and Tustin’s press forced us to make bad passes,” Sunny Hills Coach Steve White said. “We needed more manpower to beat its press.”

Tustin Coach Tom McCluskey said his team’s fourth-quarter “spurt” prevented the game from being “the ugliest offensive game I have ever seen.

“A couple of Sunny Hills’ turnovers created some easy buckets (including a three-pointer by David Beilstein) to get us going. Before the spurt we struggled all night, we just couldn’t score.”

Field goals from Leonard Mayweather and Brett Mitchelson gave Sunny Hills a 20-16 lead early in the second quarter. Tustin caught the Lancers in the final 40 second of the first half when Clayton scored five consecutive points for a three-point halftime lead, 34-31.

Clayton scored 17 of his 23 points in the first half. He was eight of 12 from the field and made seven of 10 free-throw attempts.

“Thomas really helped us inside; we had to have that,” McCluskey said.