Chaminade Continues Its Fun Run

The Chaminade High boys’ basketball team continued its postseason dominance Tuesday. This time it was a gutty little Barstow team that fell victim to the well-balanced, well-sized attack of the Eagles.

Getting production inside and out, Chaminade defeated Barstow, 102-68, in front of a capacity crowd at Chaminade in a Southern California Regional Division III first-round playoff game.

It was the fourth of five postseason games in which Chaminade won by 30 points or better. That kind of winning margin has probably made its final showing, however, as Chaminade will travel to play University in San Diego on Thursday in a regional semifinal.

“We know that every game gets tougher,” Coach Jeff Young said.

Chaminade (28-1), winner of 25 straight, was never threatened by Barstow (26-4), the Southern Section Division III-AA runner-up.

The only threat the Eagles faced was a possible injury to a Chaminade starter, as Barstow played scrappy aggressive defense with a propensity to bump and bump some more.

Justin Beach and Scott Long, who both finished with 19 points, were hammered underneath the basket and thrown to the floor hard in the first half.

Beach’s collision with Mario Hernandez less than four minutes into the game prompted Young off the bench and onto to floor to argue for an intentional foul.

Young’s antics drew a technical, but it did little to interrupt the flow of the game.

“I don’t think [the foul] was anything intentional,” said Beach, who complained of soreness in his right wrist because of the fall after the game. “They just play hard.”

Barstow played hard but couldn’t compete against Chaminade’s formidable front line. No Aztec starter was taller than 6 feet. Chaminade starts four players 6-2 or taller.

“I’m reminded of Jim Valvano who always said that, ‘Fouling is part of our game,’ ” Young said. “But it’s tough to be aggressive with guys twice your size.”

The height advantage showed early as Chaminade outrebounded Barstow, 11-0, in the first quarter and built a 25-7 lead.

Chaminade continued to pull away hitting shots inside by 6-7 freshman center Scott Borchart (14 points) and Long and outside by Beach and Long.

Beach scored all of his 19 points in the first half, including 13 points in the second quarter.

“This was more of a running game so there were more opportunities [for me],” said Beach, a 6-6 senior shooting guard. “If teams are going to double up the post we get the kickouts and perimeter shots.”

Junior point guard Cayce Cook gave another excellent performance, dishing out 12 assists and getting six steals.

“Cayce did a real nice job of getting the ball out off the penetration,” Beach said.

Long, who was three of three from the three-point range, scored all of his points in the first three quarters.

Chaminade closed out the third quarter with a 15-0 run to claim a 84-38 lead, prompting Young to play his bench the entire four period with the exception of two minutes by Cook.

Reserve Chris Canoles scored 12 points for Chaminade.

Barstow was led by Alvin Yarber, who scored all of his 14 points in the second period. Phil Alcantara added 11.