De La Nuez Sparks Ramona to Victory

The tale of two guards.

University of San Diego High’s Eric Barajas spent much of the night with Ramona’s 6-foot-9 center Travis Knight in his face. Ramona’s Alfonso De La Nuez was having a good time draining three-pointers, stealing passes and dishing off to teammates in the lane.

By game’s end, Barajas had scored 16 points and was being consoled by his teammates. De La Nuez was all smiles and high-fives after scoring 30 points, dishing out six assists, picking off four passes and leading his team to an 80-62 victory over USDHS at West Hills High in the Division III section semifinals.

Third-seeded Ramona will play top-seeded Kearny in Friday’s finals at the Sports Arena.

De La Nuez said an extra two hours of shooting practice on Sunday gave him some early rhythm--he scored five of Ramona’s first nine points. Meanwhile, Barajas had a hard time finding his rhythm as Todd Dick hounded him and held him without a field goal until early in the second quarter.

After holding on to 12-10 lead, Ramona broke out by scoring the last eight points of the first quarter.

Ramona outscored USDHS, 24-23, in the second quarter, but Barajas began finding the range as he scored 11 second-quarter points.

But at halftime, Ramona Coach Al Schaffer switched to a zone that placed Knight at the point.

With Knight’s arms in his face, Barajas could only distribute the ball to his teammates on the wings. The strategy paid off as USDHS missed open jumper after open jumper.

“It’s kind of hard to shoot over a 6-11 guy (actually 6-9),” Barajas said. “I didn’t want to force it.”

Ramona maintained a 15- to 20-point lead throughout much of the second half, except for a few occasions when USDHS would cut the lead to nine.

But three times in the fourth quarter, De La Nuez’s three-pointers or jumpers halted a USDHS rally.

“Alfonso is Alfonso,” Schaffer said. “He makes me look like a pretty good coach sometimes.”

However, De La Nuez was not the entire story. Ramona forward Cody Cunningham gave the Bulldogs some rare offense with 15 points.

David Withers led USDHS with 18 points.