Saddleback Wakes Up in Time to Beat Bakersfield

Saddleback played about 35 minutes of indifferent basketball Wednesday against visiting Bakersfield in a Southern California men’s playoff game.

But once Bakersfield caught them, the Gauchos finally got their running game going and pulled away to a 68-59 victory.

At the center of it, as he is most of the time, was sophomore guard Anthony Carter. Early in the game, he became the college’s all-time leading scorer.

Bakersfield stayed in the game, which was tied at 46 with 6 minutes 25 seconds left.

But Saddleback got two baskets off the break. First Carter scored, then he took advantage of a turnover and passed to David Drakeford, who made a layup to give the Gauchos a 50-46 lead with 5:39 left.

Rod Beavers made one of two free throws and Carter made two free throws to increase the lead to 53-46 with 4:06 left.

After a Bakersfield free throw, Beavers made a basket, his first of the game, and later a free throw to put the Gauchos up, 56-47, with 2:58 to play. Bakersfield could get no closer than nine points the rest of the way.

That Bakersfield was in the game that late was somewhat of a surprise considering the Renegades had only seven players and were without Lamont Barnes, their leading scorer. Barnes, averaging 24 points and nine rebounds, and two others were kicked off the team for disciplinary reasons by Coach Mark Arce this week.

But the Renegades did a solid job of breaking the Saddleback press.

The Gauchos, seeded seventh, advance to play at second-seeded MiraCosta at 7 p.m. Saturday in the regional finals. This marks the fifth consecutive season Saddleback has gone this far in the playoffs. The Gauchos have lost each time.

“I’d really like to get by this round,” Brummel said. “Not so much for me, but for this group of guys. They are the hardest working group we’ve had.”

Carter finished with a game-high 31 points despite 11-of-27 shooting from the field. He did made eight of nine free throws. Carter has 1,479 points in his career. He passed the mark of Dennis Smith (1975-77), who had 1,450.

David Drakeford had nine points and Beavers had seven points and 10 rebounds for Saddleback (26-5).

Lovell Brown had 24 for Bakersfield (22-11).

In another playoff game:

MiraCosta 73, Irvine Valley 62--Adam Vandervort scored 16 of his 23 points in the first half and Ryan Demirdjian had 20 points for MiraCosta (27-3), which took a 25-9 lead in the first five minutes. MiraCosta led, 44-32, at halftime after leading by as many as 14.

Irvine Valley (16-17) could only get as close as 67-57 with 3:50 remaining, Josh Porter scored 17 points and Daryl Todd had 14 for Irvine Valley (16-17).