Esperanza in Postseason Form in Whipping Orange

ANAHEIM —  Fourth-seeded Esperanza pulled off a ho-hum, 73-45, victory over Orange in the opening round of the Division I-A playoffs Friday night at Esperanza.

It looked every bit as easy as the score would indicate.

And perhaps that’s the biggest measure of how well the Aztecs are playing at the moment.

The victory was Esperanza’s 13th consecutive and vaulted the Aztecs (21-5) into the second round where it will meet Paramount, a 73-59 winner over El Monte Arroyo, on Tuesday.

Orange (11-14) didn’t figure to give Esperanza much trouble, and after the first few minutes, the Panthers offered little resistance.

Esperanza scored the game’s first eight points and led, 20-12, by the end of the first quarter and by 35-16 at halftime. Seven three-point baskets, including three by Jeff Campau, helped the Aztecs break the game open.

Campau, who finished with a team-high 15 points, started at point guard in place of Mike Oliver, who was benched for disciplinary reasons. Oliver scored nine points in a reserve role.

“I don’t think they expected us to shoot that well from the perimeter,” Esperanza Coach Mark Hill said. “We knew they were going to come out in a zone.”

Asked if he was surprised at how easily Esperanza built its lead, Hill shook his head.

“We’ve been playing very well lately, so it didn’t surprise me,” he said.

However, Orange seemed shellshocked to be down, 8-0, less than three minutes into the game.

The second half was just as lopsided, although Orange abandoned its zone defense and effectively stopped Esperanza’s three-point bombing with a tighter man-to-man.

Bottled up on the perimeter, Esperanza simply went inside and the shorter Panthers had no chance there, either. As a result, Esperanza shot 17 free throws, making 13, in the second half. The Aztecs didn’t attempt a free throw in the first half.

At the other end, Orange seemed content to launch long jump shot after long jump shot. Many missed the mark, but Gil Gonzales made five three-pointers and had 19 points to lead the Panthers.

Although Esperanza never lost its firm grip on the game, Hill noticed a few rough edges he’d like to smooth out by Tuesday.

“I thought the whole third quarter we struggled offensively,” he said. “I thought the way we played in the third quarter the score would be below double-digits.”

His fears did not come to pass, however, as the Aztecs’ lead hovered around 20 points in the final 16 minutes.

He acknowledged that the large halftime advantage probably had much to do with any mental lapses.

“As a coach, you try to tell them not to look at the scoreboard,” Hill said. “It comes down to playing hard all the time.”

For perhaps the first time in school history, Esperanza could afford to coast a little.

Last season, for instance, the Aztecs squeezed past Saddleback, 60-55, then were bounced from the playoff by eventual champion Capistrano Valley, 58-54.