COMMUNITY COLLEGE BASKETBALL : Benching Wakes Up Whitlock, and Saddleback Wins

Saddleback basketball Coach Bill Brummel wasn’t pleased with the effort of several of his players in the first half of the Gauchos’ Southern California men’s playoff game against visiting Rio Hondo Wednesday.

He made his point with Tes Whitlock by banishing the team’s leading scorer to the bench for the final five minutes of the first half.

“I didn’t think Tes was playing very hard,” Brummel said. “Everyone needs to be jogged a little at times.”

Whitlock took the benching to heart and scored 19 points in the second half to help Saddleback to a 66-54 victory.

Saddleback (23-8) advanced to play Saturday at Long Beach State in the final round of regional play. The winner advances to the State tournament, which starts next Thursday at the Bren Center.

Whitlock finished with a game-high 26 points. He was nine of 15 from the field but made only six of 12 free throws. He entered the game averaging 21 points.

“That was my wake-up call,” Whitlock said about being benched. “I knew Coach was a little upset with the way we were playing. To me it was like, ‘Pick it up or you’re going to be turning in your uniform.’ ”

Saddleback led, 32-29, at the break, but the Gauchos were a much sharper unit in the second half.

Whitlock made a lay-in off a give-and-go from Antoine Jefferson to give Saddleback a 32-43 lead with eight minutes 43 seconds left. At that point, he had scored five of his team’s first 21 second-half points.

Whitlock added two free throws to put Saddleback ahead, 56-43, with 5:26 left. Rio Hondo, which has been eliminated from the playoffs by Saddleback the last three seasons, never got closer than 10 points the rest of the way.

Saddleback also displayed its skill at using the clock late in the game. The Gauchos worked the ball around for 34 seconds before Derrick Walsh missed a three-point try with 2:38 left. Jefferson got the rebound and Saddleback again started to move the ball around.

This time, Josh Borella got open off a screen with one second on the shot clock and made an 18-footer to put the Gauchos up, 63-49, with 2:04 left.

Jefferson (11 rebounds), Walsh and Eric Ambrozich each scored 10 points for Saddleback. Ambrozich, who fouled out, was the only Saddleback starter to come out in the second half. Saddleback switched to a zone defense for much of the second half in an effort to stay out of foul trouble.

“That was sort our plan,” Brummel said about leaving his players in. “We looked at them and they didn’t look that tired.”

In other playoff games:

Ventura 95, Rancho Santiago 66--Visiting Rancho Santiago (21-12) was eliminated by top-seeded Ventura (33-2) for the second consecutive year. Sean Amos had 24 and Matt Kordik added 21 for Rancho Santiago.

Brandon Jessie, a former Edison High School standout, scored a team-high 26 for Ventura. He also had 10 rebounds.

Los Angeles City 96, Fullerton 79--Kevin Carlson had 18 points as visiting Fullerton ended its season 24-11.