Irvine Withstands West Covina’s Hot Shot for Victory

The Irvine Vaqueros withstood a torrid fourth-quarter shooting display by West Covina’s Jameel Mahmud and held on for a 51-43 victory in the second round of the Division I-A boys’ basketball playoffs Tuesday night at Irvine High.

Mahmud, a 5-foot-11 senior who averaged more than 20 points and is bound for Nevada, scored 16 of his game-high 26 points in the fourth quarter to rally his team from a 10-point deficit to one, 44-43, with 3 minutes 35 seconds remaining.

But the Vaqueros, led by Jim French, held off the Bulldogs in the closing minutes to reach Monday’s quarterfinal. Irvine (21-7) won’t know its opponent until Friday night, when Thousand Oaks plays host to the Oxnard Hueneme-Chino Hills Ayala winner.

“(Mahmud) started hitting those 30-footers which got them back in the game,” Irvine Coach Steve Keith said. “But we didn’t panic. To our credit, we held together and made the plays on both ends.”

After Keith switched 6-5 Greg Wakeham to cover Mahmud, Greg Foster and French drove for baskets to give the Vaqueros a 48-43 lead with 2:07 remaining. French hit three free throws in the final 1:14 to help secure the victory.

Meanwhile, Mahmud went cold, missing three of his last four shots for West Covina (20-8).

“We can’t expect Jameel to do everything,” West Covina Coach Ed Coyle said. “We should have gotten more production from everyone else.”

French led the balanced Irvine offense with 14 points. Eric Ambrozich added 12 points and nine rebounds, and Foster had 11 points.