CYPRESS – If the comfort level wasn’t apparent after Jonah Felix buried his first 3-pointer of the opening quarter, it was undeniable after Cypress’ senior guard connected on his fourth shot from distance as the buzzer sounded to end the first.
Behind Felix’s sharpshooting and Myles Jones’ playmaking on both ends of the floor, it took the Centurions just eight minutes to get Woodbridge on the ropes, and just one half to deliver the knockout blow.
With four players finishing in double figures for scoring, Cypress jumped to a 31-point halftime lead and cruised in the second half of a 70-43 blowout victory over Woodbridge in the opening round of the CIF-SS Division 2AA playoffs Wednesday night at Cypress High.
Jones led all scorers with 19 points. Felix was a perfect 5 for 5 on 3-pointers and finished with 15. Jared Brown added 11 and Marcus Swain chipped in with 10 for the Centurions (19-8), who will travel to take on top-seeded Colony of Ontario (23-5) on Friday night.
Woodbridge finished the season at 14-14.
“After losing the (Empire League) championship to Tustin, we had a renewed focus,” Centurions coach Derek Mitchell revealed after the game. “We talked about sharing the ball and playing aggressive defense, and I thought we did both tonight.”
On top of converting on 8-of-9 3-pointers in the first half, Cypress dominated the defensive glass and limited the Warriors to just one second-chance opportunity in the first quarter. Execution on the defensive end combined with a relentless motor in sprinting down court offensively routinely led to easy transition buckets.
The Centurions scored on eight straight possessions to end the first quarter, taking an 18-point lead into the second. They led 54-23 at halftime, shooting better than 73 percent from the field (22 of 30) in the first half.
“This game was about starting fresh, pretending like (the Tustin) game didn’t happen and just going forward,” Jones said. “Now we’ve got the momentum going into the second round. We’re going up against the No. 1 seed, so we’ll try and roll with it.”
Contact the writer: kconnolly@scng.com
