Prep Basketball Playoffs / THIRD ROUND : Huntington Beach Blisters the Nets, Rolls Past Loyola : DIVISION I-A

For Huntington Beach, it wasn’t merely a Division I-A quarterfinal against Los Angeles Loyola, it was Showtime.

Shooting 62% from the floor for the game and 78% in the second half, the Oilers shredded Loyola’s full-court press en route to a 76-58 victory over the Cubs at Cal State Los Angeles Friday night.

The Oilers (27-3) won their 18th consecutive game and made the semifinals for the first time in Coach Roy Miller’s 16 seasons. Huntington Beach will meet the winner of Monday’s Thousand Oaks-Irvine game on Tuesday.

Oiler guards Bryan Chang and Tommy Walden dismantled Loyola’s press, and Matt Ambrose and Tony Gonzalez owned the backboards.

“Their press gave us the opportunity to get layups and we took advantage of it,” said Oiler Coach Roy Miller. “We had five guys playing together and everybody was stepping up.”

Walden led the balanced Oiler offense with 14 of his 19 points, on seven-for-seven shooting, in the second half. Walden also pulled down nine rebounds, but Gonzalez and Ambrose were dominant with 11 and 10 rebounds. Huntington Beach had a 46-23 advantage on the backboards.

“Huntington Beach was the much better ballclub tonight,” said Loyola Coach Bill Thomason. “They didn’t waste their opportunities, which is the mark of a good team. It could could have been a 28- or 30-point game, but our kids played hard and didn’t quit.”

Loyola (19-8) took an 8-3 lead, but the Oilers when on a 21-4 binge. Loyola never got closer than 11 points after that. Gonzalez gave Huntington Beach a 65-43 lead with 4:33 left in the game on a double-pump two-handed slam, his second slam of the game. Toby Bailey led the Cubs with 22 points.