Friendship Set Aside, Sonora Wins

You won’t find two closer buddies than Tustin Coach Andy Ground and Sonora Coach Mike Murphy, whose teams met in a Division II-A quarterfinal Friday at Foothill High School.

Then again if Murphy was a real friend he might have loaned Ground a couple of his players, because Sonora’s superior talent was the difference in the Raiders’ 57-42 victory.

Sonora (26-3) turned a one-point lead going into the fourth quarter into a runaway by holding Tustin (19-11) scoreless for 6 minutes 3 seconds while scoring 11 consecutive points. The Tillers, who led, 28-27, at the half, made only one of eight shots in the quarter--a Ryan Earl 15-footer with 1:57 left to play--and also missed their only two free-throw attempts.

The win, the second this year against Tustin, sends Sonora to the semifinals against defending champion Compton Dominguez, which is favored to repeat.

“Dominguez will be a tremendous opportunity for us,” Murphy said. “They started out as the No. 1 team in the nation, and you still can’t name 10 top teams in the country without mentioning their name.”

Then his thoughts turned toward Ground. The two play in weekend basketball leagues and attend coaching clinics. They were going to a restaurant after the game, no matter who won.

“I hadn’t slept the past two nights worrying about this game,” Murphy said. “Andy’s teams are always well coached--no public school has done as well as they have the past five years--and no one knows us better. This was supposed to be a ‘down’ year and they still have 19 wins.”

The Tillers, who had knocked off Valencia and Pacifica to reach the quarterfinal round, look primed for an upset by racing to a 26-18 lead early in the second quarter. Tustin guard Rahiem Hobbs was red hot, making five of his first six attempts, including all four three-point tries. A couple of them were from at least 25 feet.

But despite Hobbs’ 17 first-half points, Tustin could not pull away, and Sonora closed out the quarter with an 11-2 run to trail by only a point.

“I felt good at the half, down only one,” Murphy said. “And I figured the only other person that could shoot like Hobbs was Michael Jordan, and he wasn’t here.”

The Raiders put Jeffrey Berokoff on Hobbs in the second half. Berokoff said during pre-game warmups, “I’m feelin’ it tonight--and you can quote me.” He then harassed Hobbs into missing his five shots while going on to score a game-high 20 points.