Campbell Hall Stays on Track With Victory Over Santa Fe

Talk about misnomers.

Santa Fe Christian High was hardly a runaway freight train on offense. It only took Campbell Hall about two quarters, in fact, to run the Solana Beach school out of town on a hot rail Tuesday night.

Fueled by its transition offense and superlative guard production, Campbell Hall rolled over Santa Fe, 78-55, at Harvard-Westlake in the first round of the boys’ Southern California Division V regional playoffs.

Campbell Hall (19-10) will play host to Delphic League rival Bel-Air Prep in the regional semifinals Thursday night at 7:30 at Harvard-Westlake. Bel-Air Prep defeated San Diego Calipatria, 51-40, Tuesday night.

Senior guard Austin McKellar scored a game-high 21 points and junior guard C.J. Thompkins added 19 as Campbell Hall ran the floor almost at will. These conductors were pure electric.

“I think we got a lot of easy baskets,” Campbell Hall Coach Jon Palarz said. “We had a lot of steals, we had a lot of quick outlet passes and a lot of kids running the floor.”

And a lot of transition hoops.

Santa Fe, on the other hand, was flat blown out in the second half. With Santa Fe trailing, 40-27, at intermission, Campbell Hall rolled out a 12-4 streak to take control. Sante Fe, spinning on its collective heel, lost its composure.

“When we were down by a few, I think we got a little scared,” Sante Fe Coach Jeff Reinke said. “We got tentative and they started transitioning.”

A newly coined verb, to be sure, but it covers the situation quite nicely. Campbell Hall, while running its fast break at nearly every opportunity, was doing an opposite number at the defensive end. Santa Fe (23-7) was limited to one transition basket and had to work hard for every nearly shot opportunity.

Fittingly, the game ended for all intents and purposes on a Campbell Hall fast break. After a Sante Fe turnover, Campbell Hall’s Taylor Williams (eight points) was alone when Sante Fe guard Ryan Flanders grabbed a Viking player in the back court out of frustration.

Though Williams’ drive to the hoop was terminated by the whistle when Flanders was called for a technical, Thompkins tossed in two free throws to hand Campbell Hall a 52-31 lead with 3 minutes 9 seconds left in the third quarter.

For Campbell Hall, the guards came through at an opportune time. Forward Scott Glass (six points) and center Alex Lopez (nine) were slowed by foul trouble throughout. Thompkins and McKellar picked up the pace, scoring 10 and five points, respectively, in the third quarter. Just the tonic needed since Lopez and Glass were riding pine.

“We knew we had to step it up a little,” Thompkins said. “We wanted to punch them out.”