FREEWAY LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Tortillas or Not, Troy Is Flat, 63-38

You’ve heard of a losing team throwing in the towel in defeat? Host Troy’s student section added a new twist by throwing in the tortillas Friday night during a 63-38 loss to Sonora.

The only fireworks the host school could provide was a “Piccolo Pete” that was ignited in the student section during the first quarter. And the Troy fans drew a technical foul for littering the court with tortillas. Of course by then, Sonora was well on its way to a 21-8 first-quarter lead in the Freeway League opener for both schools.

Sonora (13-3, 1-0 in league) made nine of 14 shots in the first quarter and scored 14 consecutive points to thoroughly frustrate a Troy team that many expected to challenge the favored Raiders for the league championship.

Sonora had a 33-12 lead after guard Chris St. Clair made a 16-foot shot with three minutes remaining in the first half and now the Raiders are talking about going 10-0 in the six-team league.

Afterward, Troy Coach T.J. Hardeman found little reason to fault his team and had nothing but praise for Sonora.

“They were super tonight,” Hardeman said. “Offensively, defensively, on the boards . . . they did it all. Every weapon was firing. We tried to double-team St. Clair and (center Chris) Campbell gets hot.

“I thought our kids were fired up to play hard, but we didn’t play smart.”

For that matter, Troy’s students didn’t play it smart, either, when they hurled tortillas on the court in the first quarter. Referee Speedy Castillo didn’t hesitate in calling a technical foul once the debris had been cleaned up and the antic only seemed to fire up Sonora.

Sonora scored 14 consecutive points before Troy (7-8, 0-1) recovered and the game was essentially over at halftime. Troy made only 14 of 51 field-goal attempts and its leading scorer, Greg Abbott, was limited to three points, 13 below his season average.

“We defended well, and our defense seems to get our offense going,” said Sonora Coach Mike Murphy. “They tried some gimmick defenses, and I think we had too many weapons. That was the best we’ve played in two weeks.”

Campbell was the Raiders’ most effective weapon, scoring 19 points, grabbing eight rebounds and blocking two shots. Campbell had 13 points in the first half, making six of seven shots.

Campbell also did a fine job of shutting down Troy’s returning all-league center, Matt Cardillo, who finished with six points.

“If we play like we did tonight the remainder of league, we’ll go 10-0,” Campbell predicted. “We got into our offensive flow as well as our defensive flow. There was no stopping us tonight.”

In other league games:

La Habra 66, Fullerton 44--Eddy Glover scored 18 points and Andrija Kristich 16 to lead La Habra (6-8, 1-0). Chad Murray had 15 points for Fullerton (0-1 in league).

Sunny Hills 47, Buena Park 35--Forward Mario Bertuol scored 18 points and center Gary Trendel scored 13 to lead Sunny Hills (6-8, 1-0) to victory in the league opener.