El Toro Spoils Coach’s Debut

Russ May quickly learned in his first game as Los Alamitos coach Tuesday that his Griffins possess the talent to compete with the top teams in Orange County. Whether Los Alamitos can overcome its inexperience is another matter.

Los Alamitos, a team with no returning starters, committed several costly turnovers down the stretch and No. 5 El Toro hung on for a 63-56 victory over the visiting Griffins in both teams’ season opener.

Los Alamitos had the ball, trailing by three points with 40 seconds to play, when Charger guard Ashkan Nazeri stepped in front of Griffin forward Deshaun Jones’ pass. Nazeri was fouled and converted both free throws to seal the victory for El Toro, which has four returning senior starters.

“We got beat by experience tonight,” said May, a former Lakewood Mayfair assistant. “During the last couple of possessions, their experience showed.”

“But for the first game of my career, I couldn’t ask for a better effort.”

Los Alamitos, trailing by 11 points late in the third quarter, rallied to tie the score, 54-54, with 3:36 remaining in the game on a basket inside by center Brian Rakusin, who led all scorers with 22 points to go with a game-high 10 rebounds.

But El Toro center Matt Green scored on a putback and converted the front end of a one and one to put the Chargers back up for good. Green finished with 15 points.

Chris Parish led El Toro with 19 points and Nazeri added 16.

“Our seniors stepped up,” Charger Coach Todd Dixon said. “Ashkan got a couple of steals and Matt made some key rebounds.”

In the first half, it looked like the 6-foot-7 Rakusin might single-handedly lead Los Alamitos to victory as he bulled his way around the paint for 17 points.

But Dixon had point guard Jeff Young help Green double team Rakusin in the second half, limiting his effectiveness.

In the Glendora tournament:

Mater Dei 107, La Habra 42--The top-ranked Monarchs (1-0) led by 16 after one quarter on their way to a 47-point halftime advantage. Cedric Bozeman scored a game-high 28 points, Jamal Sampson added 16, Ricky Porter had 12 and Mike Strawberry finished with 10.

In the Pacifica tournament:

Century 56, Pacifica 54--Ruben Pineda scored on a lay-up in traffic at the buzzer to lead Century (1-0) to the pool-play victory. It was the 300th victory for Coach Greg Coombs who accumulated the wins at Santa Ana and Century.

Edison 98, University 92 (2 OT)--Matt Gonzales scored a career-high 38 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter, as the Chargers overcame a 16-point deficit in the fourth quarter.

Edison made 37 of 44 free throws as the Trojans (0-1) had four players foul out.