Strong defense helps Mission Viejo get past Tesoro 60-55 and into finals of Tustin Classic

Nate Hewitt of Mission Viejo is defended by Tesoro’s Matt DeAngelo Saturday night. (Photo Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone)

Mission Viejo’s boys basketball team figured out a way to slow down Tesoro’s offensive weapons Saturday night in the semifinals of the 8th annual Tustin Holiday Classic.

The Diablos employed an effective match-up zone defense and defeated the Titans 60-55 in a battle of South County rivals at Tustin to earn a spot in the championship game Monday at 7:30 p.m. against Cajon. Cajon defeated Tustin 58-53 in the other semifinal.

“Obviously, I think we gutted it out, it was pretty gritty, it wasn’t one of our better games shooting the ball, I thought we shared it just as well but I don’t think we made similar shots that we did before hand,” said Mission Viejo Coach Troy Roelen. “But we made some free throws in the fourth quarter to extend the lead.”

Griff Higgins scored 15 points, Presley Eldridge had 12 points and Jake Conerty 11 points to lead the Diablos (15-2).

Mission Viejo was able to contain Tesoro’s top two scorers. Matt DeAngelo was held to 14 points and just two in the second half and Kaden Garrett to 13 points. Chris Allen added 12 points for Tesoro (12-3).

“To our advantage, we played against number one from Murrieta Valley ((Jordan Montgomery) yesterday and we got to play another really good point guard today and that’s going to make us better in league because there are some real good guards in league,” Roelen said.

“(It was a) match-up zone, but Griff texted me last night that he wanted him (DeAngelo) and Griff and Nate (Hewitt) did a really good job of switching and communicating on him so he didn’t get a lot of looks.”

Tesoro held a 31-30 lead at halftime and extended the margin to 49-43 going into the final stanza. The Diablos were able to sink 9-of-13 free throw attempts in the final quarter to seal the win.

“In the second half, we just took care of the ball and made clutch shots and defensively stopped them from scoring and holding their best players from not scoring, that was the difference,” Eldridge said. “We had to take away their three best players, three (DeAngelo), four (Mike Mahlen) and 24 (Garrett).”

The victory was also satisfying for Mission Viejo since it came against a South County rival.

“It’s great, it just shows how good we really are playing a great team like Tesoro, we just took care of business,” Eldridge said.

Tesoro will wrap up the tournament facing Tustin in the third place game Monday at 6 p.m.

-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com