ALISO VIEJO — Aliso Niguel might not be very entertaining. But the Wolverines are good.
It was a typical low-scoring, defense-led performance. Aliso Niguel beat El Toro, 57-50, Friday in a South Coast League game that strengthened Aliso Niguel’s chances of making the playoffs.
The Wolverines are 4-1 and in second place in the five-team league. They are ahead of third-place El Toro, 2-3 in league, by two games. San Clemente is in first with a 4-0 league record.
Aliso Niguel, 18-6 overall, plays at San Clemente on Wednesday.
The Wolverines are averaging 56 points a game, so they were consistent there. No Wolverine is averaging more than 10 points a game. True to form, Cadrall Lumanlan’s 11 points led Aliso, Matt Brennan added 10 points and Ryan D’Innoncenzo had nine.
Aliso senior guard Jared Ryu said that sort of balanced scoring is not accident.
“We just have a bunch of guys who share the ball really well,” Ryu said. “No one player has to score a lot. It can be a different guy any night.”
Kyle Molnar scored eight points with a team-high eight rebounds. Molnar, a senior, is one of Orange County’s better baseball players. He signed a letter-of-intent for that sport with UCLA in November.
Justin Faison led El Toro (15-8) with 16 points. Ameed Kargozar added 10 points.
El Toro started a freshman, a sophomore and a junior and sometimes had two freshmen on the floor simulataneously. The Chargers committed 18 turnovers. If a school record was kept for most traveling violations in one game, El Toro perhaps approached it Friday.
El Toro made 18 of 46 shots, for 39 percent. Aliso Niguel made 21 of 47, for 45 percent.
Also Niguel took a 42-33 lead into the fourth quarter. They Wolverines stretched its lead to 11 points in usual fasion: they patiently worked the ball around until D’Innoncenzo took and made a 3-pointer. That made it 49-28.
El Toro shrunk the gap to five points when Trey Jordan scored on an offensive rebound with 27 seconds to go. The Chargers could get no closer.
El Toro had a 16-10 lead in the first quarter. From there, Aliso Niguel outscored the Chargers, 21-10, to carry a 42-33 advantage into halftime.
The game’s impact on South Coast standings was crucial. The top three teams in the South Coast League receive guaranteed entry into the CIF-Southern Section playoffs. Teams that do not finish high enough in their final league standings to get a guarantee berth can qualify as an at-large team only if there is enough room in the 32-team bracket for at-large teams.
Gone are the days of 12 overall wins being good enough to grab an at-large berth and get a wild-card playoff game.
“Last year,” Aliso Niguel coach Keith Barnett said, “we won 15 games and we didn’t get in.”
Friday’s win improved Aliso’s chances of getting in this year.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
