Trabuco Hills Gives La Serna No Chance for Second Chance

Not even a quick change of opponents could slow down Trabuco Hills. After preparing to play one team, then getting another, the Mustangs had to shift gears. So they went into overdrive and powered past Whittier La Serna, 75-45, Tuesday in the second round of the Division II-A boys’ basketball playoffs.

Trabuco Hills advances to play Bellflower St. John Bosco, an 80-45 winner over Norco, in the quarterfinals Friday.

For La Serna (17-8), Tuesday evening was suppose to be a reprieve. A chance for the Lancers to redeem themselves.

It hadn’t taken a call from the governor, just the admission of a clerical error.

La Serna seemingly had been eliminated by Chino Hills Ayala on Friday, but Southern Section officials discovered that Ayala had a much higher enrollment than previously believed. So the section put Ayala in Division I-A and La Serna back in the playoffs.

About midway through the second quarter, the Lancers must have wondered why things weren’t left well enough alone.

“I had to cram during lunch hour yesterday to get ready,” Trabuco Hills Coach Rainer Wulf said.

He gets an A.

The Mustangs put this one away fast. By halftime, they were up, 36-21, and showed no signs of slowing down.

“It worked out better for us,” Wulf said. “Ayala is a more disciplined team. They would have tried to slow things down. La Serna was going to run with us. I didn’t think they had the talent to run with us.”

They didn’t.

Oh, the Lancers gave it a shot. They trailed only 18-13 early in the second quarter, but then the Mustangs turned up the heat.

Brett Poulos hit a three-pointer and then a layup. A Poulos’ steal led to a basket by Pat Barnes. A Barnes steal led to basket by Rob Warnick.

Poulos finished what he started with another three-pointer, giving the Mustangs (22-6) a 30-13 lead.

“We’ve been able to cheat off our defense to get offense,” Poulos said. “We expect to get a run like that at least once a game.”

Poulos did a lot of the damage throughout. He finished with 17 points, seven assists and five steals.

“Brett always seems to get a hand on the ball,” Wulf said. “He’s such a pest out there.”

He wasn’t the only one, from the Lancers perspective.

Mustang forward Pat Barnes took care of Eddie Ellis, the Lancers’ leading scorer. He came into the game averaging 20 points, but scored only 14.

Barnes, a 6-foot-4 senior, denied the 6-7 Ellis the ball from the start. He didn’t score his first points until midway through the second quarter.

After that, Ellis threw up shots whenever he could get them.

“We were jabbering a bit out there,” said Barnes, who also had 10 points and 11 rebounds. “I could tell he was frustrated. Coach wanted me to stay in his face and that’s what I did.”

With Ellis out of the picture, the Lancers had to look elsewhere, in vain for the most part. Jamal Turner scored 13 points, but no one else had more than five.

The Mustangs had no such problems. They had five players score eight or more points, including sophomore Warnick, who scored 16.

“That’s as good a game as we’ve played in a long time,” Wulf said. “We played with a lot of emotion.”