DIVISION I-A ROUNDUP : Oilers Tune Up, Tune Out Warren

For many basketball teams, opening-round Southern Section playoff games are a matter of survival. For Huntington Beach Friday night, its playoff opener served merely as a tuneup for bigger things to come.

Showing off impressive balance, the Oilers whipped visiting Downey Warren, 81-47, in a Division I-A mismatch.

“You have to assume since we’re a seeded team, they’re going to schedule a team they think we’ll beat,” said Huntington Beach Coach Roy Miller, whose Oilers are 25-3 and seeded third in the division. “But it’s going to get tougher. It’s single elimination. There’s no room to not show up.”

The Oilers certainly showed up Friday night. It took them just six minutes to open up a 10-point lead against the much smaller and obviously outmanned Bears (14-12). Huntington Beach led by 18 points at halftime, and it only got uglier in the second half.

Leading the way was muscular junior Tony Gonzalez, who scored 15 points and grabbed 15 rebounds. Matt Ambrose scored 19 points, Bryan Chang had 12 and Tommy Walden 10.

Jarvis Watson and Tony Nikaj each scored 12 points to lead Warren, which finished fourth in the San Gabriel Valley League.

“We have five players who can play,” said the 6-foot-5, 215-pound Gonzalez. “It’s really fun playing on this team.”

In his postgame locker room talk, Miller explained to the Oilers that the playoffs are down to 16 teams, adding any of them can beat the Oilers.

Miller said he was trying to keep the Oilers from looking ahead to an expected showdown in the finals with top seed Mater Dei, who has handed the Oilers two of their three losses.

In another Division I-A game:

Irvine 64, Montclair 56--Senior guard Jim French scored a career-high 35 points, including five of five free throws in the fourth quarter, for visiting Irvine (20-7), which advances to the second round Tuesday to play host to West Covina.