SOUTHERN SECTION BASKETBALL PLAYOFFS : 3-A BOYS : Return of Injured Players Helps Rancho Alamitos Roll, 86-58

The return of Chris Singletary and David Green provided second-seeded Rancho Alamitos High School the emotional boost it needed and the Vaqueros soundly defeated South Pasadena, 86-58, in a 3-A second-round game.

Singletary only played the last 26 seconds of the game at Rancho Alamitos. But it was his participation in the Vaqueros’ basketball practice this week for the first time this season that inspired his teammates.

Singletary, who started for the Vaquero basketball team last year as a sophomore and started this season as the varsity quarterback, broke his left leg in two places in the first football game of the season. He had surgery and has been rehabilitating ever since.

“It gave the team quite a lift, him and David showing up for practice the same day,” Vaquero Coach Eric Hamamoto said.

Green, the Vaqueros’ leading scorer at 16.7 points a game, dislocated the thumb on his shooting hand against Pacifica three games ago and had been sidelined.

In his first game back Friday, he scored 12 points on four of eight shooting, grabbed 10 rebounds and had five steals.

Rancho Alamitos (20-4) had a poor shooting night at 41%, but South Pasadena was worse, shooting 31% for the game.

“The key to the game was outside shooting,” Tiger Coach Jeff Klein said. “The guys we needed to hit just weren’t hitting.” In addition, the Tigers were not able to get the ball inside to 6-6 center Paul Perkins, who finished with nine points.

Rancho Alamitos’ full-court pressure wore down the Tigers (13-11), but it was on the offensive boards where the Vaqueros took control of the game in the second half.

Rancho Alamitos outscored South Pasadena, 21-16, in the third quarter and 33-16 in the fourth, mostly on follow shots. South Pasadena managed only two field goals in the fourth quarter.

Rancho Alamitos played all 15 players, 11 of whom scored.

“We had a lot of guys coming off the bench with fresh legs and that’s what we told them, ‘Go in and board,’ Hamamoto said.

The Vaqueros needed those offensive rebounds, because though they kept putting up three-point shots, they didn’t make many.

Paul Preuss led the way with 23 points, hitting four of 12 three-point shots. Richard Pearce scored 12 points, but he hit only two of 10 three-point attempts.

“We have such confidence in our shooters, we never told them not to shoot,” Hamamoto said.

Reserve Eric Moore was the sole Vaquero consistently on the mark. He shot 75% and scored 14 points, eight of them on four of four shooting in the third quarter.