El Camino’s McCoy, Reeves Prove Frustrating to Ramona

Things didn’t look real promising for El Camino when Heath McCoy, its point guard and third-leading scorer, picked up his third foul two seconds into the second quarter.

But instead of banishing McCoy to the bench, El Camino Coach Ray Johnson stuck with the 5-11 senior. McCoy rewarded his coach’s faith by keeping the Wildcats in the game with nine second-quarter points.

From there, Jeff Reeves took over as the third ranked-Wildcats ran away from visiting Ramona, 84-72, Wednesday night in the Avocado League.

Reeves finished with a game-high 33 points, including 12 in the decisive third quarter, as El Camino (10-2, 3-0) took sole possession of first place. Ramona (7-4, 2-1), which trailed by two points at the half, was outscored 21-11 in the third quarter and never recovered.

But for El Camino, the moment of truth came when Johnson decided to leave in McCoy.

“He does it so many times that he’s had three in the first three minutes before,” Johnson said. “Offensively, he’s good at going at people and he’s got good body control so he doesn’t pick up charges.”

McCoy, who picked up a foul with six minutes left and finished with four, said: “We always foul a lot when we come out too tense. I knew I had to chill out.”

McCoy’s third foul also meant someone else would have to cover Alfonso De La Nuez, the county’s third-leading scorer at 24.8 points a game.

Bryant Westbrooks started out on De La Nuez, but couldn’t handle him. So Johnson tried seldom-used Lorenzo Brooks, who began to get aggressive with De La Nuez.

Suddenly, De La Nuez’s jumpers were falling short and his drives were being cut off at the top of the key. De La Nuez finished with 15 points on 6-of-22 shooting. In the second half, he was 1 of 12.

Westbrooks also gave Ramona fits, scoring 17 points and grabbing seven rebounds.

El Camino’s Shaun Scury had 13 points and 12 rebounds, and McCoy finished with 14 points.

Ramona’s Travis Knight scored 32 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Clint Cook, Ramona’s off guard, scored 12.