It’s Manning to the Rescue One More Time : II-A boys: Senior reserve steals ball with six seconds to play, preserving Trabuco Hills’ 52-50 victory over Kennedy.

Erik Manning raised that question again, the one that has puzzled Trabuco Hills’ basketball Coach Rainer Wulf time and again this season.

How’d he do that?

But Manning did it again Saturday, stealing the ball with six seconds remaining to preserve Trabuco Hills’ 52-50 victory over Kennedy in the Southern Section II-A boys’ championship game at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.

Trabuco Hills (25-5) won its second section title in the last four years and extended its winning streak to 15 games. The Mustangs shut down Kennedy (23-7) and stopped the Irish winning streak at 18 games.

And the Mustangs can thank Manning, a low-key reserve who played only 19 minutes and scored four points. The senior had delivered in the clutch earlier this season, hitting the game-winning shot in a victory over Pacific Coast League-rival Estancia.

But Manning was just living up to his nickname.

“We survey our players at the start of every season,” Wulf said, “and we ask them what their nickname is.

“Erik left his blank, so the assistant (coaches) and I called him, ‘How’d he do that?’

“He sometimes thinks we’re insulting him because we’re saying, ‘Even Erik Manning can do that.’ But really it’s a compliment, because he’s so valuable to our team.”

Here’s how Manning did it Saturday . . .

Kennedy had the ball and was trailing, 52-50, with 16 seconds remaining. But Manning knocked the ball away from Kennedy’s Bob Deck, grabbed it and lofted it down court to teammate Corey Klinke, who was fouled by Pat Kunz with eight-tenths of a second remaining.

Klinke missed the free-throw attempt, and Kennedy called time out with one-tenth of a second remaining. The Irish failed to get off a shot on the in-bounds play before the buzzer.

Afterward, Manning shrugged when asked why he threw the high, arching pass down court instead of dribbling out of trouble.

“A couple of years ago I saw Magic Johnson do the same thing, and I thought it was smart on his part,” he said. “I never forgot that play.”

Kennedy’s offense struggled down the stretch. The Irish played the final 15 minutes of the game without Morgan Murakami, their top three-point shooter and ball-handler.

Murakami dislocated his right elbow trying to tip in a missed shot by Jermaine Galloway with Kennedy trailing, 43-40, 57 seconds into the third quarter. The game was stopped for nearly 10 minutes while Murakami, who finished with 10 points, was helped onto a stretcher.

Kennedy Coach John Mayberry said Murakami was missed, particularly on the final offensive possession of the game.

“I think Morgan (Murakami) would have been a stabilizing force for us (on the final turnover),” Mayberry said.

Said Galloway: “There were tears in my eyes because Morgan is such a good friend, and it hurts to see a good friend go down.

“We played to win this game for him, and I’m upset that we didn’t win it for him.”

The game was billed as a clash between two of the county’s premier big men--Trabuco Hills’ 6-10 Gavin Vanderputten and Kennedy’s 6-10 Galloway.

But the showdown never transpired, as Galloway (13 points) fouled out with 2:26 left to play and Vanderputten (eight points) followed with 39 seconds left.

Wulf said the big men struggled to keep up with the game’s up-tempo pace. Galloway outscored Vanderputten, 11-2, in the first half, but neither player was a factor in the second half.

“Both teams like to run the open floor, and we knew that coming in,” he said. “I think both of them were a step slow for the pace of the game.”

Instead, it was their supporting casts that decided the game down the stretch.

Brent Kaull came off the bench to score 10 points, and Brett Poulos added 14 points for Trabuco Hills. Patrick Barnes, the Mustangs’s enforcer inside, had six points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

Jeff Cummins scored 16 points for Kennedy.

Neither team shot particularly well. Trabuco Hills was 45.9% from the field and 65.2% from the free-throw line, while Kennedy was 31.7% from the field and 71% from the free-throw line.

Trabuco Hills, which advances to the regional playoffs along with Kennedy, continued to play solid defense in the playoffs. The Mustangs held their four previous playoff opponents to less than 30.6% shooting from the field.

Can the Mustangs continue the tough defense into the regionals?

“Oh yeah,” Wulf said. “These guys can defend with the best of them.”

They did it Saturday, especially Erik Manning.