DIVISION II-A : El Modena Has 100 Reasons to Smile After Defeating Buena Park

El Modena Coach Tim Tivenan couldn’t stop smiling after the Vanguards’ 58-46 first round victory over scrappy Buena Park in the Division II-A playoffs Friday at El Modena. And Tivenan had much to smile about.

After the game, he posed for pictures with his team in “Club 100” T-shirts that commemorated Tivenan’s 100th coaching victory in seven years at El Modena.

“Waiting till next year for that 100th would have been like batting .299,” Tivenan laughed. “I’m pretty happy to get it. Those group of kids have gotten me over a hundred of them.”

But Tivenan acknowledged that hitting the century mark wasn’t nearly as significant as getting past the first round of the playoffs. El Modena has won three consecutive Century League titles, but it has been first-round losers in two of the past three years.

“Just getting out of the first round was the most important thing,” he said.

The Vanguards (15-9), who will meet San Bernardino (19-6) in Tuesday’s second round, were bounced last year by unseeded Hacienda Heights Wilson.

El Modena (15-9) didn’t exactly cruise, but then it was never seriously threatened either. The Vanguards took an 8-7 lead and never trailed again, building a 28-16 halftime lead and a 36-16 third-quarter margin.

But Buena Park (11-14), behind point guard Alex Tolentino (17 points) and forward Jayson Fields (11 points), trimmed the lead to 45-35 with 4:40 remaining in the game. However, El Modena’ Tyler Wood nailed a three-pointer and Buena Park never could get the lead under 10 points the rest of the way.

“This was a pretty typical game,” Tivenan said. “The way we have a pattern of playing well in spurts and then relaxing is pretty much the way we play.”

When El Modena relaxed, Tolentino was usually ready to exploit the Vanguards’ soft defense with his quickness. He continually drove past El Modena’s guards and into the lane where he sank short jumpers or flying lay ups over Aaron Aguilera and Brad Williams.

“Their point guard kept them in the game,” said Wood, who was the game’s high scorer with 18 points. “He’s the quickest guy I’ve seen.”

Said Tivenan: “We knew that he’d be quicker than most we’d seen, but I thought we did a good job of containing him for the most part.”

El Modena dominated inside with Aguilera (five points, 10 rebounds) and Williams (14 points, seven rebounds). Buena Park’s starting center Nile Evans did not score and grabbed only two rebounds before leaving in the fourth with a leg injury and starting forward Scott Frakes was scoreless when he fouled out.

Fuentes was the only other Buena Park player in double figures with 11. He also had a team high seven rebounds.

Buena Park, which finished 4-6 in the Freeway League, didn’t help its cause by shooting four for 15 from the free throw line. El Modena shot 12 of 20.