COMMUNITY COLLEGE MEN’S STATE BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : Rancho Santiago Rallies to Reach Final

Gene Altamirano has had trouble breathing the last couple of nights because of a slight cold.

And after another poor first half Friday, his throat was starting to get even tighter.

But, after some soul-searching at halftime, he scored 22 second-half points to lead Rancho Santiago College to an 81-70 victory over El Camino in the semifinals of the state basketball tournament in front of about 900 at UC Irvine’s Bren Center.

Rancho Santiago (31-3) will play Chabot (26-7) at 7:30 tonight for the championship. Chabot defeated Merced, 75-67, earlier Friday.

Altamirano, a 6-foot-4 sophomore, started to slump Thursday when he failed to score in the second half of an 86-66 victory over American River. He missed his last five shots, all in the second half, and finished with 14 points.

Things were hardly better in the first half Friday.

Altamirano’s first three-point attempt was an air ball and he ended the half with two points and his team trailing, 30-27.

But Altamirano came back to make all three three-pointers he tried in the second half and led the Dons on a 17-4 run to start the second half. He finished with a game-high 24 points.

His first three-pointer in the second half gave Rancho Santiago its first of the game, 31-30, with 18:48 left.

“I have this kind of a cold and it’s been hard to get my rhythm down,” Altamirano said. “I just couldn’t breath very well. But in the second half, it was all or nothing and I had to try and do something for my team.”

Altamirano’s final three-pointer came with 4:21 left to give the Dons a 65-58 lead.

The clincher came at 1:24, as Rancho Santiago center Matt Lien and forward Corie Blount teamed for the key basket. The Dons had beaten the El Camino press and got the ball to Blount, about 25 feet from the basket.

As the El Camino defense rushed to collapse on Blount, he threw a lob pass to Lien, who dunked it and the Dons led, 74-63.

Lien finished with 18 points and Blount had 15 and a game-high 14 rebounds.

“We just played some defense in the second half,” Rancho Santiago Coach Dana Pagett said. “I just told the players at the half that they had 20 minutes left in their season if they continued to play poorly, and if that is what they wanted to do, then they could just pack their bags and go now.”

In the first half, El Camino opened a 25-15 lead on a steal and layup by Darius Dubose with 5:48.

The Dons then called a timeout. Rancho Santiago worked the ball to Lien, who dropped the ball out of bounds.

But El Camino turned the ball right back and Blount made a short turnaround jumper to cut the lead to 25-17.

After another basket by Lien, Cam Terry scored four consecutive points on a pair of free throws and a steal and layup to get the Dons to within a point with 1:06 left.

Terry ended with nine points, his highest total in Rancho Santiago’s four playoff games.

In the other quarterfinal game:

Chabot 75, Merced 67--Scott Kelly scored 25 points and Tony Amundsen 18 as Chabot (26-7) advanced to the final for the second consecutive season. Kevin Weatherby scored 19 for Merced (23-11).