Rancho Santiago Controls Kings River

Rancho Santiago, which has dominated most of the competition in Southern California this season, took its act on a statewide level Thursday.

The Dons demolished Kings River, 74-58, in front of about 1,500 in the opening round of the state tournament in Bren Center.

Rancho Santiago set a single-season victory mark, improving to 33-2. Rancho Santiago goes looking for No. 34 tonight at 8 p.m. against Compton in one semifinal. Cypress plays Long Beach at 6 p.m. in the other. Both are at Irvine.

Last season, Rancho Santiago went 32-3 and won the state title at Irvine.

The victory over Kings River (26-10) featured the usual Rancho Santiago traits.

Powerful inside play from sophomore Corie Blount (22 points) and Erik Martin (17 points), strong guard play from Brett Pagett, LaVern Broadnax and Glenn Greene and good support of the bench.

Blount and Broadnax are returning starters. Pagett is a transfer from UC Irvine and Martin is a transfer from Texas Christian University. Greene was a redshirt at Rancho Santiago last season.

Blount also had a game-high 13 rebounds.

“I wasn’t thinking about last year at all,” Blount said. “Our goal is to win it here this year. We played pretty well tonight.”

Before it was over, the Dons had emptied their bench.

“It was good because we won,” Rancho Santiago Coach Dana Pagett said. “We played good in spurts, then nothing. We started out with some first-game jitters but then got it going.”

The Dons’ defense was once again in control as Kings River was held to its second-lowest point total.

Rancho Santiago was sluggish at the outset but the Dons picked it up in the final 10 minutes of the first half and led, 40-26, at the break.

Kings River got as close as eight at 40-32 with 17:54 left but a well-placed timeout by Coach Dana Pagett helped redirect the Dons into an impressive 15-6 run in the next six minutes.

Broadnax had a three-pointer, Blount had a breakaway dunk and Rancho Santiago also worked two consecutive back-door plays.

Pagett threw a nice bounce pass to Broadnax as he came off a pick and headed to the basket for a layup and a 53-36 Rancho Santiago lead with 11:49 left. Next it was Martin and Pagett’s turn.

Martin took the ball in the high post, faked to the middle and then gave it to Pagett who cut low to the basket for a layup and a 55-36 lead with 10:49 left.

No one scored in double figures for Kings River.