El Camino Continues Upset Streak With Playoff Victory Over Cypress

CYPRESS-Just call El Camino’s basketball team the “Road Warriors.” For the third consecutive playoff game El Camino defeated a much higher-seeded team on the road to earn a spot in the final eight tournament on March 8-10 at UC Irvine.

On Saturday, the Warriors continued their playoff streak by defeating No. 2 Cypress (28-4) 80-71 in the third round. The Chargers had nailed El Camino 70-49 on Dec. 23.

The upset prevented 23rd-year Cypress Coach Don Johnson from recording 501 career victories and becoming the winningest junior college coach in the state.

It also proved that No. 23 El Camino (23-10) can play with the big guys, even though seeded lower than any other South Coast Conference team.

“They’re just hungry,” said El Camino Coach Ron McCurkin. “They’ve got to get something out of this season. Although I don’t even want to think about it, we didn’t win league, but now we have a chance to win something else. “

Johnson said he knew El Camino wasn’t the same team that lost here in December.

“All reports indicated that they were much more active and aggressive,” he said. “And they were.”

Four El Camino players scored in double figures. Sophomore guard Larry Lockley led the pack with 23 points, and Jamal Ross and Steve Leary each added 14. Freshman Michael Houck (Rolling Hills High) had 12.

Cypress was led by sophomore center Andre Lamoureux who had 23 points. Despite his performance, Cypress’ shooting was colder than an Alaskan night in mid-winter. The Chargers made their first shot from the field with 16:03 left when Lamoureux hit an easy bank shot. Cypress shot a dismal 35% in the half.

“They were cold,” McClurkin said, “because of us, because of our defense. We haven’t played defense like that in a long time. It was very intense.”

El Camino took advantage of Cypress’ bricks by hitting the defensive boards hard. The Warriors also shot well at 55%. They went on an 11-point run early in the game to take a 21-6 lead.

Cypress narrowed the lead to nine with 1:27 left for the break, but El Camino took a 40-29 halftime lead after a two-handed jam by Leary and a base line jumper by Lockley in the final minute.

Cypress narrowed the lead to eight with 12:26 left to play. With 7:09 remaining, Grayle Humphrey swiped the ball from El Camino’s Allen Caveness and passed it to Mike Renaud, who hit a 17-footer that brought the Chargers to within five points, 53-58.

A pair of Lamoureux free throws brought the Chargers to within four with 5:09 left, but that’s as close as they got.