El Toro's Basketball Team Wins First-Round Game Going Away, 73-33

When it comes to first-round playoff games in boy’s basketball, there always is that risk of a blowout, especially when two teams are going in opposite directions.

Wednesday night was no exception.

El Toro continued to ride its current hot streak, winning for the fourth time in its last five games and sixth in its last eight, by dominating the Santa Fe Chiefs of the Del Rio League, 73-33, in the opening round of the CIF Southern Section Division 1A playoffs at Don Walker Memorial Gym.

The Chargers (16-11), the No. 8 seed in Division 1A, with play the winner of the game between the No. 9 seed Montebello, which finished second in the Mt. Baldy League and Rialto, which finished fourth in the San Andreas League. That second round game will be played Friday, and the Chargers will be on the road to either Montebello or Rialto.

Santa Fe (11-16) had lost its previous four games of the season by an average of four points before facing El Toro. But the Chiefs didn’t have a player over 6 feet 1, and after closing the gap to 20-18 with six minutes left in the second quarter, were outscored by 38 points the rest of the way. Santa Fe managed only 11 points in the second half.

“We came within two, but then the next time I looked up at the scoreboard they had jumped back up 31-21 and it all fell apart,” Santa Fe coach Leonard Romero said. “I wasn’t too concerned about their big men going in. I thought we would be too quick for them. But their big guys played a good game and we couldn’t hit our shots.”

The Chiefs shot only 28 percent from the field and were 0 for 19 from three-point range. In the second half they made only four shots and scored only one point during an eight-minute stretch, scoring their first basket of the fourth quarter with 3:10 left. In fact, El Toro’s reserves combined to score 41 points.

“They humbled us real quick,” Romero said.

Center Ryan Hardy scored 10 of his game-high 15 points in the first quarter to help give El Toro a 17-8 lead after one. But Hardy picked up two quick fouls and the Chargers were charged with their 10^th team foul two minutes into the second quarter, giving the Chiefs some life.

Santa Fe scored the first eight points of the quarter to cut the deficit to two, but El Toro sophomore guard Liam Skelly connected on three three-pointers and Cody White scored on an offensive rebound to give the Chargers a 34-22 halftime lead.

“We were anxious to start the game and I thought we gambled too much. We tried to make adjustments during the second quarter, but we finally made them at halftime,” El Toro coach Todd Dixon said. “They weren’t hitting their shots, so we said just keep their guys in front of us [because] we had the size advantage. I thought our defense played well in the second half.”

Eleven players scored for the Chargers and the team finished with 18 assists for the game. Skelly finished with nine points and John Heffel eight. Fil Perkins and Jordan Faison, who was called up from the JV team for the playoffs, each had six points, while Ryan Roberts, Mack Spees and Colin Zaversnick each added five.