Pacifica Christian players including Houston Mallette (left) and Charles Erving (No. 4) meet before the game. (Photo Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone)
Pacifica Christian’s boys basketball team, without two of its starters, put together a solid effort from start to finish, defeating Corona del Mar 64-54 Thursday night in the second round of the Beach Bash Tourney at CdM.
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Pacifica Christian was without 6-7 senior Judah Brown (concussion protocal) and 5-10 senior Timmy Bahadoor (out sick) but the rest of the players picked up the slack and helped the team advance into the semifinals Friday night at 7 against Los Osos at Vanguard University. Brown has already committed to St. Mary’s.
The Tritons (8-1) got big contributions from Houston Mallette (21 points, eight rebounds and five assists), Charles Erving (20 points, eight rebounds) and Elijah Paschal (13 points, seven rebounds). Josh Sims was solid on the boards with 11 rebounds.
Pacifica Christian led 29-25 at halftime but came out fired up in the third quarter outscoring CdM 15-7 to take control of the game.
“CdM plays really hard, they execute their offense and they do a great job scouting so for us being out two starters I’ll take that,” said Pacifica Christian Coach Jeffrey Berokoff.
“It’s usually been Brown and Mallette who have been our leading scorers but we have four or five or six guys who can score and now you see a couple guys are stepping up and alleviating the pressure of not having two consistent starters on the floor.”
Mallette and his teammates showed determination to get the victory.
“It was pretty intense. Corona del Mar is a really good team,” Mallette said. “They run their stuff really well and they have a lot of good kids and great coaching. They came out and they knew a lot of our stuff because we play so much, but we fought hard and competed and at the end of the day, we made winning plays and winning moments.
“We stayed composed this time. At the end of the day, we fought hard, we listened to the game plan and just went out there and won. Everybody stepped up.”
The game had the intensity of a league match-up.
“That’s what we’re looking for,” Berokoff said. “It was a great team win for the guys.”
CdM (5-2) was led by Jack Stone who had 21 points and Jack McKenna who scored 13 points and hit four 3-pointers.
The Sea Kings made a late run cutting the lead to seven points with just over a minute left, but Pacific Christian was able to make keep free throws down the stretch.
“They play hard and they pressured us,” said CdM Coach Ryan Schachter. “That’s the most pressure that we’ve faced so far this year. They did a great job of making it hard for us to get any type of flow or rhythmn on the offensive end.
“But our guys battled and played hard. Stone kind of had an off night and McKenna hit some shots and Efe (Guocoglu) hit some shots, but it just wasn’t enough to overcome. We just couldn’t get going offensively. Credit to their D. It was tough sledding on the offensive end.”
Stone was held to six points in the first half but finished strong with 12 points and two 3-pointers in the final quarter.
CdM will play Santa Barbara Friday night at 6 p.m. at CdM.
RELATED: Semifinal schedule for Beach Bash Tourney
-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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