DIVISION I BOYS : Huntington Beach Takes Out Frustrations on Vista

The final score was 81-55 Huntington Beach, but Vista Coach Greg Lanthier knew it could have been a lot worse.

“The game was not as close as the score indicated,” he said. “If 44 (Tony Gonzalez) played more in the second half, it wouldn’t be this close.”

Gonzalez and his teammates shrugged off a lopsided loss to Mater Dei in the Southern Section Division I finals and took out their frustration on a badly outclassed Vista team in the opening round of the Southern California Division I boys’ regional playoffs Tuesday night.

Huntington Beach will play Los Angeles Crenshaw, a 70-49 winner over Simi Valley, Thursday.

The Oilers (29-4), seeded sixth, opened up the court early with three-pointers from guards Bryan Chang and Tommy Walden, then they let Gonzalez loose in the paint.

And once he got loose, there was no stopping him, except for a four-minute stretch in the third quarter when he left after getting poked in the eye.

After third-seeded Vista (28-3) took a 13-12 lead on a Shane Jager three-pointer, Gonzalez took over, scoring 10 of the Oilers’ next 14 points to give Huntington Beach a 28-18 lead. By halftime, Gonzalez had 16 points and eight rebounds and Huntington Beach had a 40-25 lead.

And the Mater Dei embarrassment was but a memory.

“We were upset, disappointed and frustrated by the Mater Dei game,” said Gonzalez, who finished with 18 points, 16 rebounds, four steals and a block. “We came out pumped and wanted to redeem ourselves.”

Gonzalez took a few looks at Vista’s two big men, 6-foot-6 sophomore Matt Jager and 6-6 junior Adam Vandervort and started calling for the ball.

“The guards came out shooting the ball and I started yelling, ‘Hey guys, what about me,’ ” he said. “We knew the inside was their vulnerable spot.”

Jager finished with 12 points and three rebounds and Vandervort had 14 points and seven rebounds, but many of their shots were rushed inside and they were ineffective at keeping Gonzalez, a 6-5 junior, and 6-6 senior Matt Ambrose off the offensive glass.

Ambrose picked up where Gonzalez left off in the second half, scoring 14 of his team-high 20 points after intermission. He also had 10 rebounds.

Senior swingman Chris Jones helped Gonzalez and Ambrose inside and out, finishing with 19 points and seven rebounds.

Outmanned inside, Vista’s only chance was its three-point shooting, but Matt Jager, the Panthers’ top gun, never got going. He scored 22 points, but made only seven of 18 shots, most of them after Huntington Beach had built a 60-32 third-quarter lead.

“By them not getting off and reeling off a bunch of three-pointers, we were able to keep the crowd out of the game,” Oiler Coach Roy Miller said.

The crowd in the jam-packed Vista gym was nearly deafening in the first quarter, but the Vista fans didn’t have much opportunity to cheer after the first quarter. When Huntington Beach began the third quarter with a 12-0 run, everyone realized Vista’s season was over.