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Jason Briggs of Woodbridge defends against Rowland in the opening round of the CIF playoffs. (Photos: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Woodbridge High School’s boys basketball team led from the start and defeated Rowland 60-30 in the opening round of the CIF 3A playoffs Wednesday night at Woodbridge.
Woodbridge moves on to the second round to host El Dorado Friday night.
The Warriors, who were the Pacific Coast League champions, weren’t originally among the top four seeds, but CIF officials sent out updated seedings on Monday which had Woodbridge at No. 2. Northwood, which was third in the PCL, was the previous No. 2 seed in the division.
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“I was happy, the guys deserve it, they put in a lot of work this year, played a lot of good teams, battled, beat a lot of good teams, especially at the end there and they deserve to be where they’re at, so now we just got to play like it,” said Woodbridge Coach Steve Scoggin.
Stephen Lamp scored 18 points and made three 3-pointers and Jason Briggs and Jaiden Sabino had 11 points each to lead Woodbridge (20-9). Charlton Kanginan had 10 points to lead Rowland.
“The guys came together in the second half,” said Scoggin. “Coming off the league championship, we were just a step slow in tonight in the first half. Once we kind of got together as a unit, that’s when we started spreading. But you got to give Rowland credit, they came out and played hard. They won every 50-50 ball, they got offensive rebounds, they’re making shots, they’re tough and scrappy and we hadn’t matched that intensity and we didn’t do it until the fourth quarter.”
Woodbridge led 26-17 at halftime, then broke the game open by outscoring Rowland 18-6 in the third quarter.
“We came in as a second seed so we knew we wouldn’t get a super tough opponent,” said Lamp. “But coach told us not to take anyone lightly, so we came in and played Woodbridge basketball and took care of business. I’ve been feeling good lately ever since the end of our league championship so I just want to keep the momentum going and keep playing like this.”
Lamp said he and his teammates were pleased about the adjustment in seeding.
“I think we deserve it, because we beat Northwood and won league so I think it was the right choice and we should be the number two seed,” he said.
The biggest cheers of the night from the fans, including Woodbridge students came when freshman Garrett DiCostanzo and senior Rustam Mihhailov came into the game late and sank 3-pointers.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
