Peninsula Boys Romp Past Leuzinger to Set Up Showdown With Inglewood

With academic finals this week, Peninsula High Coach John Mihaljevich was concerned that his players might not be ready to play their best basketball Wednesday night against visiting Leuzinger.

“It’s always difficult because the kids get finals hysteria,” Mihaljevich said.

Not to worry. Peninsula proved that it had its mind on basketball, frustrating Leuzinger with a zone defense and getting a big game from forward Matt Acres en route to an easy 70-41 Bay League victory.

The Panthers (14-6, 3-1 in league play) stayed a game behind first-place Inglewood (12-9, 4-0) in the Bay standings. The leaders meet Friday night at Peninsula. Leuzinger (11-9, 2-2) slipped to third.

“That’s as good a game as we’ve put together, offensively and defensively,” said Mihaljevich, who earned the 415th victory of his 26-year coaching career. “Now we’re in a position to put it all on the line Friday night.”

Peninsula has won four games in a row since losing its league opener at Inglewood. Leuzinger had also played well lately, but the Olympians never recovered after a 15-0 run by Peninsula gave the Panthers a 29-16 lead late in the second quarter.

Acres, a 6-foot-7 senior, led Peninsula with 25 points on 11-for-14 shooting, eight rebounds and three steals. His steal and breakaway dunk keyed a 10-0 run early in the third quarter that built the Panthers’ lead to 39-20.

“Matt Acres really played well,” Mihaljevich said. “It looked like he stepped up in his confidence level.”

The same could not be said for Leuzinger. The Olympians had difficulty getting good shots against Peninsula’s 1-1-3 zone defense, falling further and further behind as the game progressed.

“They made us do a whole lot of things wrong against their 1-1-3 defense,” Leuzinger Coach Jimmy Ellis said. “They got us out of our rhythm. We knew about (the zone), but seeing it was another thing. We just struggled the whole night.”

Center Wendell Robinson was the only Olympian who scored in double figures, finishing with 13 points.

“I thought the defense keyed everything tonight,” Mihaljevich said. “We were able to limit them to one shot and not too many put-backs.”

Guard Brian Hogentogler added nine points for Peninsula and center Andrei Maglica scored eight.