Beckman Coach John Goins talks to his players during a timeout Friday night. (Photos courtesy Jim McCormack, For OC Sports Zone).
Basketball always will be a numbers game and that was the case Friday night in Beckman’s 95-64 loss at La Mirada in the first round of the CIF Division 2A basketball playoffs.
Trailing by nine after one quarter, the Patriots put together excellent second and third-period offensive efforts, scoring 22 points in the second and 18 more in the third. Forty points in the equivalent of a half is an excellent effort in most high school games.
But La Mirada scored 54 in the same span on the way to its highest scoring effort of the season.
To see the slide show, click on the first picture:
With the win the Matadors advance to the second round of the playoffs, traveling to third-seeded Tesoro for a Tuesday, Feb. 15 matchup. Beckman finished 10-18 after winning four of its last six regular season games to earn a place in the playoffs.
As have most teams this year, both teams endured trials and tribulations during the season. Beckman had only two returnees to begin the season and had the typical COVID issues before putting together the 4-2 run to finish the regular season.
La Mirada had gone 1,095 days without a home game before opening its renovated gym with a Suburban League victory over power Mayfair. The Matadors also played their first 22 games with one or more players unavailable because of injuries or COVID protocol.
“Sometimes there is an advantage to that,” Beckman Coach John Goins said. “One of the things that does is it lets other guys get into the game. They played a great schedule and it paid off for them.”
Beckman, at a disadvantage size-wise, but up a battle and both coaches used their benches generously. The result was that 22 points, 11 on each side, worked their way into the scorebook.
The difference was La Mirada’s consistent play.
“It’s a game of combinations,” Goins said, “and when you go through three or four combinations and none of them work, then you find one that does work, by then you’re down by 10 or 12 points. We just couldn’t recover.”
The Patriots were led by 6-2 junior Caydon Do with 15 points. Senior point guard Dowon Kim followed with 13 points and Dylan Nguyen and Abhi Acharya each scored eight points.
La Mirada freshman Julien Gomez led all scorers with 23 points and three Matadors, Chris Perez, Isiah Kalaj and Sean Cervantes each contributed 12 points.
—Courtesy Jim McCormack, For OC Sports Zone
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