Sunny Hills Slips Past El Dorado : Basketball: Lancers struggle to win, 65-56, against team they had earlier beaten by 29 points.

Sunny Hills spent an evening going through the motions, doing a little of this and a little of that. In the end, the Lancers did just enough.

With more plod than pluck, they slipped past El Dorado, 65-56, Friday. And there wasn’t much to do afterward except breathe a sigh of relief.

“This is one of those games that you’re just glad to have won,” Sunny Hills Coach Steve White said.

It was a nonleague game at Sunny Hills High School, and the Lancers (12-2) struggled with a team they already had trounced, 77-48, this season.

There were reasons, to be sure.

--Center Terry Mann, the Lancers’ leading scorer, got into foul trouble in the second half. He went to the bench with his fourth foul with 1 minute 42 seconds left in the third quarter, and the Lancers proceeded to blow a seven-point lead.

--Power forward Scott Paden sat out with a sprained ankle.

--Guard Mario Bertuol played but was not 100% because of the flu. He came on in the second half, scoring 12 of his 14 points, but was not sharp.

“We have so many colds going around right now that everyone is feeling it,” White said. “The last time we played, Paden and Bertuol were both healthy.”

Through the first half, it was the Golden Hawks (7-6) who played with authority. They were up by as many as five points and led, 30-28, at halftime.

El Dorado’s strategy was simple enough: keep Mann from dominating.

The Golden Hawks double- and triple-teamed him and the strategy was effective, for the most part. Mann finished with 21 points, but was only six for 14 from the field.

However, in the second half, Mann’s supporting cast picked up the slack.

Brian Willmer, a 6-foot-2 forward whose specialty is brawn, not finesse, scored a career-high 13 points. He had seven points in the fourth quarter, when the Lancers broke open the game.

Leading, 49-47, Sunny Hills went on a 13-4 run. Willmer scored five points during that stretch.

“Brian’s role is not usually to score a lot of baskets,” White said. “But he sure made what we needed tonight.”

The Lancers also got some help from sophomore guard Kevin Christian, who scored 11 points, including three three-pointers.

El Dorado was led by Brent D’Arc, a 6-8 center, who had 10 points in the first half and finished with 17.