Garrett Brehmer brings the ball up for San Juan Hills as Jalen Yim of Irvine defends Friday night. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
San Juan Hills boys basketball is healthy and almost at full strength after going through its share of injuries the entire season.
The timing couldn’t be better.
The Stallions led from the start and went on to defeat Irvine 75-63 Friday night in the second round of the CIF Division 5 playoffs at Irvine to advance into the quarterfinals Tuesday at home vs. Verbum Dei.
To see the slide show, click on the first photo:
Senior guards Rocco Jensen (22 points) and Cam Goltara (20 points) led the way for the Stallions, who led 37-32 at halftime. Jensen had four 3-pointers and Goltara three.
Holden Stearns and Franciso Martinez each scored 18 points and Jalen Yim 13 points to lead Irvine (18-12). Martinez, just a freshman, had four 3-pointers.
“It was a fun, exciting game, playoff basketball I think Harry (Meussner, the Irvine coach) does a fantastic job for Irvine and I really have a lot of respect for him and the program he’s built,” said San Juan Hills Coach Jason Efstathiou. “I’m happy that my guys were able to stay together and stay strong, I’m happy we get to play next week.
“We’ve had adversity this entire year. We’ve had guys injured left and right, serious injuries too. Goltara is back from his second knee dislocation, two years in a row, he had a serious ankle injury. He’s played played for two weeks the whole season. And Garrett Brehmer missed a bunch of weeks and Oliver (Sandor) missed a bunch. We’ve been riddled with injuries.”
Goltara carried the Stallions (16-13) in the first half, scoring 17 points and making two 3-pointers. Then Jensen took over in the second half scoring 14 points and making three-3 pointers.
San Juan Hills was able to avenge a two-point loss in triple overtime to Irvine in a tournament game in November.
“We lost to these guys in triple OT earlier this year so we kind of had a chip on our shoulder ever since,” said Goltara. “We haven’t been healthy all year so we’ve been trying to get back to full strength and once we are now, I can rely on my guys to help me get the win. I know I started off pretty good, but overall, it was just a great team effort, boxing out and getting rebounds and making the extra pass, we did everything it took to win that game.
“I’ve had my issues all season and I was just trying to get back and get ready for playoffs and my teammates have helped me carry the load and now that we’re all at full strength, we’re looking pretty good.”
Jensen was also happy with the team’s effort.
“It was a big grind throughout the whole game,” Jensen said. “We came out a little soft, but we really picked it up in the second half, Cam carried a big load for us in the first half, scoring a lot for us, then in the second half, we picked up it up with a lot of boards and hustle plays, we just grinded it out.
“Having Cameron back, he helps our team tremendously, he finds crafty ways to score, he plays really good defense and it’s great we also have Kamran Aziz back, he can hit some big-time three’s and plays good D, great point guard. We’ve really come together as a team.”
San Juan Hills held a 56-45 lead after three quarters but Irvine kept battling, cutting the lead to 62-55 on a 3 pointer by Yim with 5:24 left in the game. But Jensen countered with a 3-pointer to up the Stallions lead to 10 and they were able finish strong.
Irvine Coach Harry Meussner remained proud of his team’s effort. It was the third year in a row that Irvine has advanced to the CIF playoffs.
“First of all, credit to San Juan Hills, they came out firing, obviously as a coach I’m going to look at things we could have done better,” Meussner said. “But they came out ready to play, they executed, and then for our boys, we really weathered a storm and kept punching back.
“It’s sad for a season to come to an end but I just want to celebrate my seniors (Yim, Sina Saferzadeh, Yuta Ueda, Ethan Lu, Cyrus Totol and Bentley Nguyen). In reflection, this is our third year with a playoff win for our program, which is huge. It’s the second most wins I’ve had in my short time here. Obviously we know we had an incredible player in Cooper Stearns the last four years. I don’t think people thought we would come out and win 18 games this year.
“And for these guys to come out and be a new team and go 9-9 into league and then after that be 9-2 until tonight is a really good run, and I’m just really proud of the growth of these boys and credit to the seniors, but I’m also really excited about the group we’re bringing back next year and want to take the time to relish in what we did well first this year and continue to put in the work that’s made us successful.
“I give all the credit to the boys for working all these years and putting the time into making us coaches look good.”
Irvine struggled a bit in the first quarter, missing five free throws, but the Vaqueros battled until the end.
It’s the seventh straight appearance in the CIF playoffs for San Juan Hills, which captured the CIF Division 2 championship in 2022.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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