Gloger’s Late Burst Saves Cougars

Jeff Gloger scored Capistrano Valley’s final eight points as the host Cougars held off San Clemente, 69-66, Wednesday to open South Coast League boys’ basketball play.

But Capistrano Valley Coach Brian Mulligan, though he said he was pleased with the victory and thrilled that his team is 14-2 and ranked seventh in Orange County, wasn’t totally thrilled with the evening’s performance.

“Our effort was there,” Mulligan said, “but our attention to [defensive] detail scares me. It’s just little things, but we played five different defenses tonight and none of them worked. At the end I had no idea how we were going to stop them.”

One of the plays that bothered Mulligan was an open three-point shot that San Clemente’s Jordan Fleener (16 points) made to cut the lead to 69-66 with 10 seconds left.

The shot came 10 seconds after Gloger, who finished with 20 points, scored on a breakaway to put Capistrano Valley up, 69-63. Gloger had stolen the ball and scored on a layup with 40 seconds to play to put the Cougars up, 67-60.

Jake Franzen, a junior, added 19 for Capistrano Valley, which was called for only one foul in the second half. San Clemente, ranked 10th in Orange County, got the ball back one final time but it was with two-tenths of a second left and the Tritons (11-3, 0-1) could not get off a shot.

“They can do it when they have to do it,” Mulligan said of his team’s ability to play defense, “but we are giving up too many points and that concerns me.”