Huntington Beach Topples Thousand Oaks, 58-50

The scrappy play of a trio of Huntington Beach High guards Wednesday night offset the height advantage Thousand Oaks has enjoyed all season, and the Lancers were defeated, 58-50, in a Southern Section Division I-A semifinal at Edison High.

Huntington Beach (27-3) will face top-seeded Mater Dei (30-1) in the championship game at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Sports Arena.

Thousand Oaks (26-2), for its part, will continue to practice and hope for an at-large berth in the Southern California regional playoffs.

“We will petition for at-large berth in Division I and continue to practice, working on the weaknesses Huntington Beach exploited,” Thousand Oaks Coach Ed Chevalier said.

By virtue of meeting in a Southern Section final, Mater Dei and Huntington Beach both are guaranteed of advancing to the state regionals.

According to Chevalier, Thousand Oaks will make its presence known at the Southern Section final as well. Thousand Oaks was miffed by a statement made by Mater Dei Coach Gary McKnight on Tuesday that the only chance Thousand Oaks had of beating Huntington Beach was “if their bus broke down.”

“Thousand Oaks boosters will be there in force to root on Huntington Beach,” Chevalier said.

Huntington Beach guards Bryan Chang, Chris Jones and Tommy Walden were the force that created havoc for Thousand Oaks’ ballhandlers. The Lancers committed 18 turnovers and continually had problems getting the ball inside to its twin towers, Nick and Paul Foster.

Jones and Walden took turns hitting three-point shots at the end of the second and third quarters that Huntington Beach Coach Roy Miller said, “broke (the Lancers’) backs.”

Paul Foster scored 18 points for Thousand Oaks, forward Jason Hartman scored 15 and guard Peter Lauer added 12. Nick Foster was held to two points.

“Hartman was matched against our guards and he did a good job of scoring,” Miller said.

Thousand Oaks, which had a 23-game winning streak snapped, made a run in the third quarter, cutting the gap to 34-32 on Denny LeVine’s three-point shot, his only basket of the game. Walden and center Tony Gonzalez, however, answered with baskets.