Bouncing Back, Griffins Show They Can Rally

Angry and confused, the Los Alamitos boys’ basketball team walked into the Arrowhead Pond Friday night not knowing what to expect.

Three days earlier the Griffins had been stunned in their season opener, a 13-point loss to Sonora in which their teamwork went out the window.

“Personally, that loss was a great disappointment,” guard Andrew Pleick said. “We played like individuals. Tonight the team had something to prove.”

It took the better part of the first two quarters, but the Griffins took major strides toward playing like the exceptional team many think they can be. They rallied from a seven-point deficit to defeat San Diego Section power Vista Rancho Buena Vista, 59-45, in the Wooden High School Classic.

Pleick, 6 feet 4, had 22 points and eight rebounds and 6-8 center Jeff Grgas had 20 points and eight rebounds.

The Griffins, who trailed 17-10 six minutes into the game, made 20 of 27 free throws overall and never trailed after Grgas’ basket gave them a 34-32 lead with a little less than five minutes to go in the third quarter.

From there Pleick, the Swede who played on the European age-group traveling team, went on a rampage. He scored six of the next eight points, pushing the Griffin lead to 10, 44-34. They were never challenged again.

“Andrew took over in the third quarter,” Los Alamitos Coach Steve Brooks said. “He did an outstanding job of driving and also getting the ball to others.”

Brooks said the Griffins (1-1), fourth in The Times Orange County preseason rankings, weren’t ready to go against No. 8 Sonora, and that it meant something to perform well against Rancho Buena Vista, which has won two of the last four San Diego large-school division titles and returned three two-year starters.

But early on it was evident that Los Alamitos, which returned one starter from last season’s Sunset League champion, hadn’t developed much chemistry. Its matchup zone defense was out of sync and Rancho Buena Vista took advantage of that by making a number of back-door layups.

That forced Brooks to switch to man-to-man coverage midway through the second quarter and the tactic kept the game from getting out of reach.

“We weren’t recognizing some of the matchups, particularly the back-door ones,” Brooks said. “They beat us too many times.”

Rancho Buena Vista (2-1) made 21 of 53 shots from the floor, missing all nine of its three-point attempts.

In other games:

Glendora 54, Mater Dei 42--Chris Clark hit a three-point shot with two seconds left in the third quarter to give Glendora (2-0) its first lead, 35-33, and the defending Southern Section Division I-A champions slowly pulled away from the Monarchs. Casey Jacobsen led all scorers with 22 points. Mike Bayer came off the bench to score 10 for Mater Dei (1-1).

Compton Dominguez 87, Houston Waltrip 60--The Dons (2-0) raced to a 27-14 first-quarter lead. Center Keith Kincade scored 21 points in 18 minutes of play for Dominguez, which had all but one of its 14 players score.