COUGARS DO IT WITH DEFENSE
San Ysidro forces 22 turnovers, including five in key stretch, to beat LCC in Open quarterfinal
One bad stretch in the second quarter and La Costa Canyon was playing catch-up the rest of game.
San Ysidro 79, La Costa Canyon 73
Down by a point, La Costa Canyon turned the ball over five straight possessions — four of those traveling calls — as San Ysidro went on a 10-0 run to end the half and held on to win 79-73 in a San Diego Section Open Division boys quarterfinal Friday night.
The teams played a two-point game on Dec. 23 with San Ysidro winning 81-79 at Torrey Pines in the Holiday Tipoff Classic.
Memphis-bound Mike Williams had 35 points in that game. He finished with 20 Friday, but Cougars coach Terry Tucker credited his team’s defense with the win.
“Half-court man defense,” Tucker said. “We got after it and forced some turnovers.”
La Costa Canyon (16-12), seeded No. 5 and ranked No. 65 in the state, turned the ball over eight times in the second quarter, eight more in the third and 22 times in the game.
San Ysidro turned it over just eight times, four in the final three quartters.
San Ysidro (18-11), seeded No. 4 and ranked No. 62 in the state, led by 11 at the half and by 15 late in the third quarter. But La Costa Canyon cut the deficit to four with 27 seconds to play and had the ball — but turned it over.
San Ysidro got 17 points from Memphisbound JJ Taylor, but it was the defense and the supporting cast that led the Cougars to the win.
Ty Ingram finished with 15 points, five in the fourth quarter.
Gerrard Guerrero had 12, seven in the third quarter.
“Everybody contributed,” Tucker said. “We’re starting to play championship basketball.
“We had a lot of new guys early in the season and it took us a while to come together. When you have superstars like Mikey and JJ, you want to have some fun, score 90, have 20 dunks.
“But it’s playoff time now, time to win a championship, start playing together.”
The Cougars average 85 points per game. Tucker was proud his team didn’t hit its average and still won.
“Defense wins championships, and the kids on this team have won championships,” Tucker said.
Ty Hendler led LCC with 27 points, making eight 3-pointers, three in the fourth quarter.
Christian Brown added 15 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. Parker Jelsing finished with 10 points.
Wes Smith, LCC’s 6-foot-11 center, added 11 points, grabbed nine rebounds and blocked a pair of shots.
“Wes has only been with us about three weeks,” said LCC coach Dave Cassaw. “We’re still learning what he can do and what we can do with him.”
The game was tied five times and the lead changed hands six times in the first quarter, which ended in a 20-20 tie.
And the first two possessions of the second quarter resulted in a tie and change.
All teams in the Open Division advance to the Southern California Regionals with the pairings announced Feb. 26.