El Dorado players celebrate with teammate Eli Rodarte (No. 1) after a comeback win Thursday night. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
El Dorado’s boys basketball team battled back from a seven point deficit after three quarters to defeat San Clemente 64-58 Thursday night in a hard-fought pool play game that went to the wire at the Luis Macias Tournament at Santa Ana High School.
The Golden Hawks (2-1) turned up the pressure in the fourth quarter and held off a late comeback by San Clemente to seal the win.
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Senior guard Eli Rodarte led the way with 20 points and four 3-pointers. Ryan Northcott, Noah Barker, Jack Boettner and Evan Nam added eight points each for the Golden Hawks, who roared in the locker-room after the game to celebrate the win.
“We’re real resilient, we had a tough loss last night to a really good team (Chino Hills), we learned a lot in so many ways, probably more than if we had won,” said El Dorado Coach Ryan Mounce. “We got to get a little stronger in the weight room, we got to be able to play against teams that have a little more moxie and a little more physicality. We weren’t ready yesterday. Knowing we were going to play San Clemente, a well coached and a really talented team, I think our guys brought it.
“Staying with it and grinding is what we’re trying to teach our kids, the game flows. We had a marathon mentality, it’s not a sprint, it’s a 32-minute game, our whole goal was to take their best player (Bryan Blake) and guard him full court and wear him down. I thought fatigure got them, especially with some foul trouble and some guys not necessarily playing in their regular roles and we made a 17-2 run (in the fourth quarter).”
Blake did all he could to help the Tritons win. He scored 25 points, 12 coming in the third quarter but was held to two points in the final quarter. Bradden Baggs added eight points for San Clemente.
San Clemente (1-1) led from the start and held leads at halftime and after the third quarter.
But Rodarte provided the spark the Golden Hawks needed in the fourth quarter with seven points. Rodarte’s 3-pointer with 3:13 left in the game gave El Dorado a 56-50 lead.
San Clemente battled to come back, trimming the lead to 60-58 on a layup and free throw by Andrew Stakston with 13 seconds left.
Barker’s two free throws with 9 seconds remaining pushed the lead back four. Naoh Querubin sank two insurance free throws to account for the final margin.
“Today we came out and played very physical,” Rodarte said. “That was a very good team, we needed those offensive and defensive rebounds, a big game from our bigs, Noah Barker, Evan Nam and Noah Q (Querubin) all stepped up today, our defense just took us there and we got the dub.
“We lost a close one to Chino Hills, it was just a learning experience for us, for today, we just knocked off a ranked team, we’re very excited, and many more good games to come this season.”
El Dorado will wrap up the tournament on Saturday. San Clemente faces Chino Hills Friday night.
Newport Harbor, which is undefeated in the tournament, has clinched one of the spots in Saturday’s championship at 2:30 p.m. at Santa Ana. Their opponent will be determined after pool play Friday.
Newport Harbor defeated Yorba Linda 60-43 Thursday night. Owen Saukkola had 24 points and Marcel Aguilar 15 points to lead the Sailors.
In the other game, Dana Hills defeated Santiago 66-27.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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