Trabuco Hills Opens Big Lead, Then Holds On to Beat Burroughs

TRONA, Calif. — Trabuco Hills opened up an 18-point lead midway through the third quarter, then went on to defeat Ridgecrest Burroughs, 54-43, Tuesday night at Trona High School to advance to the Southern Section II-A championship game.

Trabuco Hills (24-5) will meet Kennedy at 1 p.m. Saturday at the L.A. Sports Arena. The Mustangs, who were led by Gavin Vanderputten’s game-high 21 points, outscored Burroughs, 18-10, in the second quarter to take a 28-16 lead into the half.

Trabuco Hills began the second half strong and opened its biggest lead of the game, 40-22, on a layup by Corey Klinke with 4 minutes 26 seconds left in the third quarter. The Mustangs went scoreless until there was 6:26 left, but still led, 42-30.

“We got ahead early and I thought we stayed in control,” Trabuco Coach Rainer Wulf said. “They didn’t want to push the ball up so they limited the amount of shots they took.”

Klinke grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds and scored 10 points for the Mustangs. Ryan Holland, hit three three-point baskets in the first half and finished with 10 points.

Burroughs cut the lead to 48-41 with 1:45 to play, but a technical foul on Scott Hanson for pushing Holland resulted in two free throws by Trabuco Hills’ Brett Poulos, which sealed the victory.