La Habra, Crean Lutheran, Newport Harbor and Beckman notch playoff victories while CdM eliminated

La Habra’s boys basketball team opened the CIF 3AA playoffs, defeating Torrance 64-44 Friday night at La Habra.

Cameron Dashiell had 21 points, nine steals and eight rebounds and Sam Howlin had 19 points and 17 rebounds.

“We came out a little sluggish on both sides of the ball, but thankfully picked it up defensively in the second half and we were able to open things up,” said La Habra Coach Aaron Riekenberg. “Cam was great tonight and Sam was solid in the second half. I still don’t think we’ve played our best basketball yet, so hopefully this serves as a wake up call and next Tuesday we can put four quarters together.”

Also Friday night:

Beckman 73, Twentynine Palms 62: Beckman opened the 3AA playoffs with a win at home.

Tommy Feldman scored 22 points, Christopher Muller had 16 points and Dylan Thoener 12 points for the Patriots.

“This was not our finest performance,” said Beckman Coach John Goins. “Twentynine Palms did a great job of taking Dylan Thoerner out of the game, and we struggled to execute our game plan. We were short our walking double double, Aaman Soma, due to illness, so that only made things more difficult.

“I’m happy for the boys for getting a playoff win, but we need to play much better to have a chance against our next opponent, St. Francis, who is the No. 4 seed in the division. Hopefully we come away from this with a renewed focus upon execution and play the way we had been playing during the last two weeks of league where we played great team basketball.”

Crean Lutheran 67, Sonora 66: The Saints (16-13) opened the 2A playoffs with a strong effort, led by Aiden Gilbert with 17 points, Chris Swardstrom with 16 points, Jon Scherer with 15 points and Josh Shin with 10 points.

Newport Harbor 56, El Toro 37: The Sailors (26-4) won a first round CIF playoff game at home. Dayne Chalmers had 22 points. Robbie Spooner 10 rebounds and Sam Barela eight assists. The Sailors will play Temecula Valley in the second round.

Mayfair 67, Corona del Mar 62: The Sea Kings (18-10) were led by John Humphreys with 16 points and Jack Stone and Jake Hamilton with 12 points each in the 2AA opener.