FREEWAY LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Buena Park Loses, Makes Playoffs

Go back to bed you Buena Park Coyotes. Conk out. Sleep until noon. You deserve it.

All those worries about an early-morning playoff game today went out the window Friday night, so you can put that 54-48 loss to Sonora out of your minds.

In the end, La Habra lost big Friday and so did Sunny Hills. And that means Buena Park (12-12, 4-6 in the league) finishes all alone in third place and advances to the Southern Section playoffs, which begin next week.

If La Habra and Sunny Hills had won, the three teams would have met at 8 this morning at Fullerton High to settle the score in a nightmarish round-robin tournament.

And what of Sonora?

The sixth-ranked Raiders (22-3, 10-0) completed their undefeated league season, although Coach Mike Murphy didn’t like the looks of Friday’s game.

“That was ugly,” he said. “I knew we weren’t ready to play. We just took this one for granted. It was a real big game for (Buena Park).”

The loss seemed to have a crushing effect on Buena Park. But reached later at school, Coach Ed Matillo’s spirits had lifted with the news of the losses by La Habra and Sunny Hills.

“Now we get to play at Artesia,” he joked of a possible first-round matchup against the section’s top-ranked Division II-A team.

Early on, Buena Park wanted a slow pace and Sonora didn’t seem to mind. Matillo instructed his players to spread out, the better to take advantage of their superior quickness with drives to the basket.

It worked occasionally, but the net result was only to keep the score down.

Sonora led, 13-7, after the first quarter and 28-13 by halftime. Things picked up slightly in the third quarter, but Buena Park only drew closer.

Guard Alex Tolentino provided the spark with slashing moves between taller defenders, scoring nine of the Coyotes’ 19 third-quarter points.

Trailing by nine to start the fourth quarter, Buena Park inched closer. After Tolentino made two free throws with 1 minute 27 seconds left, the Coyotes were within 48-43.

Sonora survived the final minutes thanks to four free throws by Chris St. Clair, who had 25 points, and two by Peter Lythgoe, who had 14 points.

“If St. Clair wasn’t such a great player down the stretch, it might have been a different game,” Matillo said.

Tolentino had 16 points and Juan Fuentes added 14 for Buena Park.

In other league games:

Fullerton 59, Sunny Hills 42--Fullerton’s victory eliminated Sunny Hills from the playoff picture as the Indians’ Chad Murray scored a game-high 15 points. Ryan Hartshorn added 12 points for second-place Fullerton (16-9, 7-3). Mario Bertoul led Sunny Hills (8-15, 3-7) with 10 points.

Troy 70, La Habra 55--Greg Abbott’s 21 points helped Troy (10-14, 3-7) knock La Habra (8-15, 3-7) out of the playoffs. Mark Stenner added 14 points and nine rebounds for the Warriors.