El Toro Roll Continues Against San Clemente

Once, it seemed the race for the South Coast League boys’ basketball title would be close. But with three games left in the season, El Toro appears intent on running away with it.

Wearing down opponents with its high-octane offense, El Toro has a two-game lead in the league standings, and Friday night at El Toro against another up-tempo team, the Chargers stayed two games up by outlasting San Clemente, 75-66.

El Toro (19-4, 7-0) needs a victory at Capistrano Valley Wednesday to clinch a title in its first year as a South Coast League member. Last year El Toro played in the Sea View League.

“I don’t like talking about that,” Charger Coach Todd Dixon said. “It’s never a comfortable lead.”

Such was the case against the pesky Tritons (12-9, 3-4) Friday.

El Toro built sizable leads in each quarter, only to see San Clemente make a run. The Tritons trailed, 66-57, with 3:18 to play, but pulled within five at 71-66 with 43 seconds remaining.

El Toro sealed the victory by making four of four free throws in the waning moments.

“They battle us pretty well,” Dixon said. “We have similar matchups with size inside and nice scoring options outside and our emphasis is to get the other team in transition.”

Ashkan Nazeri, who scored 16 of his game-high 26 points from the free-throw line, said the pace only fueled his team.

“It gets your adrenaline pumping,” Nazeri said. “Last time when we beat them by two it showed they had what it takes to give us a game. But in a fast game like this, it shows which team wants it more. Tonight it was us.”

San Clemente trailed, 12-4, with 1:47 left in the first quarter, then used three fast-break layups and a baseline drive by Curtis Bush to take a 17-16 lead early in the second.

But Bush was whistled for a technical foul, his third personal foul, with 6:45 left in the first half. He sat out the rest of the half.

Triton Coach Brad Davis, hounding officials about the call, picked up a technical foul a few minutes later. By the time Nazeri had made all of his free throws, El Toro had a 23-17 lead.

“We knew it was going to be a war on the court,” Davis said. “That was a huge shift. That guy had scored our last eight points and then we have to sit him.”

Bush finished with 22 points and six steals.

In other South Coast League games:

Capistrano Valley 60, Mission Viejo 52--Matt Sweany scored 16 points, including four three-pointers, to lead visiting Capistrano Valley (5-2 in league).

Francis Ireifej scored 19 points for Mission Viejo (11-12, 2-5).

Trabuco Hills 61, Dana Hills 55--Evan Fields had 15 points and 15 rebounds for visiting Trabuco Hills (11-12, 4-3). Andrew Spaulding scored 15 points for Dana Hills (6-17, 0-7).