Clark Lives Up to His Billing, Shoots Down Faith Baptist : Prep basketball: Arizona-bound forward scores 48 points to lead El Cajon Christian to an 80-72 win.

Faith Baptist High knew the key to winning its Southern California regional Division V basketball championship game Saturday was stopping Tony Clark, El Cajon Christian’s star forward.

But knowing and doing proved to be two different things. There was just no stopping the 6-foot-8 Clark, who scored 48 points to lead Christian to an 80-72 win at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

The Patriots (19-11) will play Colusa (27-2) for the state championship Friday in Oakland.

Faith Baptist, the Southern Section 1-A champion, finished at 21-11.

Contender Coach Stuart Mason heard horror stories Friday about Clark’s athletic ability. He knew that Clark had set virtually every San Diego County scoring record and was averaging 43 points a game this season.

What Mason did not know was that Clark was even better than advertised. The Arizona-bound forward scored 24 points in the first half to help his team to a 40-22 lead. He added 15 more in the third quarter to give Christian several leads of more than 20 points.

“Tony was just on fire tonight,” Mason said. “We didn’t shoot that well and he shot the lights out. We knew we had to stop him to win, and we certainly didn’t.”

Clark, who has 1,312 points this season, was 19 of 27 from the field and hit four three-point shots. He had 10 rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots.

“When Tony is on, he sure is pretty to watch,” Christian Coach Randy Wright said. “Tonight was a work of art, for sure.”

Faith Baptist appeared intimidated by Clark in the early going. After playing impressively in regional playoff wins over Calipatria (67-52) and Ribet Christian (61-57) this week, the Contenders seemed to be a different team against Christian.

They shot just 25 percent from the field in the first half, while the Patriots shot a sizzling 62 percent.

Proof of Clark’s dominance came late in the first half when Faith Baptist, trailing 37-22, tried to work for the last shot.

Sophomore guard Alex Estrada missed a jump shot with five seconds left and Christian rebounded and passed the ball to Clark. The smooth senior hit a three-point shot at the buzzer.

“Give that No. 42 all the credit,” said Estrada, who finished with a team-high 32 points. “We tried very hard to stop him and we just couldn’t. He took us out of our game and that was the difference.”

Junior forward Fernando Garcia, at 6-foot-3, was given the task of covering the taller Clark, and, although he stuck to him like glue, he couldn’t stop the deadly outside shot. Garcia had 14 points.

Clark was able to take more shots from the perimeter than usual because 6-6 forward David Piester was enjoying his best game of the season and dominating play inside. Piester finished with 18 points and nine rebounds.

“Our guys’ tough play inside took the pressure off me and let me shoot the ball,” Clark said. “And tonight I was on. There was just nothing they could do to stop my shots.”