PHOTOS: Tustin advances to semifinals of its tourney with 42-35 win over Trabuco Hills

Ryan Stading of Tustin drives to the basket in Friday’s game. (Photos: Fernando M. Donado, For OC Sports Zone)

Perhaps the fans attending the second round game of the Tustin Holiday Classic between Trabuco Hills and Tustin would have liked to have seen more points.

To see the slide show, please click on the first photo

But the final totals, and the final score were just fine with Tiller Coach Ringo Bossenmeyer.

His team grinded out a 42-35 victory over Trabuco Hills at Tustin to advance into the semifinals Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.

“We had to make it that way,” said Bossenmeyer. “They’ve got multiple guys who can shoot the ball and we just tried to do a good job identifying their shooters and giving them one shot, the best we can.

“It was a really good win for us against a quality team that has good players and very good coaching.”

Tustin (13-3) had balanced scoring led by Bradley Burdick, who scored 13 points. Ryan Stading and Jason Naranjo had 10 points each and Ben Ahinaquah had nine points and 15 rebounds.

Carson Haskell led Trabuco Hills (10-5) with nine points and Matthew Prendergast had seven points.

Tustin led 17-13 at halftime and 26-17 going into the fourth quarter.

But Trabuco Hills stormed back in the fourth quarter and tied the game 35-35 when Kyle McLain sank a 3-pointer and a free throw with 1:18 left.

But Ahinaquah came up with some clutch points and rebounds down the stretch including a basket that put the Tillers ahead 37-35 with 45 seconds left. He made one of two free throws later and Naranjo made two free throws with 15 seconds left to seal the win.

“I just thought it was just a good team victory, they were obviously a very good team,” said Burdick. “We had a couple rough stretches but that’s probably the best we’ve played as a team and Ben did really well today. He got a lot of rebounds and he helps us a lot with loose balls that a lot of us can’t get to. He’s a big part of our team.”

Burdick was not surprised to see the low scoring final.

“We focus a lot on defense and we knew they had three scorers that averaged a lot so we played really good defense on them and we sort of sagged back on the other players to try and make them do something,” he said. “We had a good game plan so I think that’s why we were able to hold them to a low number.”

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

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