Breakers boys head into second round

Well, the first one is behind them “” and in a good way.

A year after being eliminated from the CIF-Southern Section playoffs on this very floor, the Laguna Beach Breakers boys’ basketball team exorcised the ghost of losing their first game of the 2007 postseason tournament by pulling away from Beckman Wednesday (Feb. 13) for a 53-38 victory in at Dugger Gym.

The victory puts the 10th-ranked Breakers into a second-round Division III-A matchup tonight seventh-ranked Nogales. The Nobles, champions of the San Antonio League, edged Apple Valley, an at-large entry from the Mojave River League, 57-56, in another first-round game Wednesday.

Tipoff is 7 p.m. at the La Puente school.

By beating Beckman, an at-large entry from the Pacific Coast League which finished 11-14, Laguna was able to win its first playoff game since 2005.

“A big pressure is taken off us with this win,” Breakers senior guard Kevin Buck said. “It feels awesome to win this after losing our first (playoff) game last year.

“The first game is always important because you lose, and it’s ‘one and done,’ the season is over with. We’re glad to be moving on.”

Laguna (21-6) is moving on after methodically overtaking Beckman, the Breakers athletic ability and team play wearing down the Patriots. And the win came after a disappointing loss at Estancia last Friday (Feb. 8) that cost the Breakers a perfect Orange Coast League season.

But the two-time league champion Breakers weren’t real sharp at the outset of the Wednesday’s game.

Turnovers, missed shots from close range and mis-fired passes, led to a low-scoring first-part of the first quarter. Despite missing out on several chances to take command, the Breakers never trailed in the game and were only tied once at 2-2.

A three-point play by Charley Bowman capped a 7-0 run that gave Laguna an eight-point lead before the Breakers settled for a 13-9 advantage at the end of the quarter.

The quarter also saw junior forward Ryan Lawler establish his game with six points and Buck come up with three rebounds and a pair of assists. The only downside to the quarter for the Breakers was that starting senior center Kenny Sullivan picked up his second foul with 51.9 seconds left in the quarter.

Sullivan would pick up his third foul late in a second quarter that saw Laguna score the first five points of the quarter to open up an 18-9 lead. The Breakers took their first double-digit lead at 21-11 when Buck hit Laguna’s first three-point basket of the night from the right corner.

But Beckman hung around, cut the lead to 25-18 and had possession temporarily after a missed shot under the Laguna basket. Lawler, though, came up with a key steal in the lane then turned for an easy layup that eventually would give the Breakers a 27-18 halftime lead.

“I thought we played pretty solid although we did make some little mistakes,” Laguna Coach Bret Fleming said. “We didn’t hit some of our passes and missed some chippies near the basket.

“I thought Kevin played real solid, and Ryan (Lawler) played really strong. I was a little concerned when Kenny (Sullivan) picked up his third foul. I thought it kind of forced him to be a little tentative on defense. Still, he played a good game.”

When Lawler created a turnover that lead to a basket by Buck off the baseline in the third quarter, it ignited a 7-2 run that took Laguna to a 41-27 lead. Lawler scored four points and had two big blocks in the quarter.

The Breakers took third first 20-point lead (53-33) on two free throws by Bowman with 3:13 to play in the game.

Lawler led all scorers with 16 points. Sullivan had 11 points to go along with nine rebounds and three blocked shots, two of which came seconds apart of one of Beckman’s final possessions of the game.

Buck scored 10 points, Bowman and junior forward Dylan Roley each scored five points and senior guard Marcus Hairston, who ran the floor with precision, scored six points with four assists.

The winner of tonight’s Laguna-Nogales second-round game advances to Tuesday’s (Feb. 19) quarterfinal round where it will face the winner of another second-round game tonight between second-ranked Perris and 14th-ranked California.

“We can go really far if we stay focused,” Bowman said. “We have all the talent in the world, and we just need to play as a team.”

Fleming said that cutting out the “little mistakes” will be the key to extending the Breakers postseason ride.

“I think we can progress far, so long as we play near-perfect,” he said. “We played sloppily at times tonight and got away with it. That won’t be the case from here on out, because the games will only get tougher.”