VILLA PARK – Villa Park held off a furious second half rally by Carnegie of Riverside to take a 56-52 victory in a CIF Southern California Regionals Division III quarterfinal game Saturday on the Spartans’ court.
Villa Park (25-6) led, 44-27, midway through the third period. The Wolverines (19-7) outscored the Spartans, 22-6, over the next nine minutes and sliced the gap to 50-49, on a dunk by Julio Arocha with 2:25 remaining.
Caleb Banuelos scored on a backdoor layup off a bounce pass by Myles Franklin to boost Villa Park’s lead to 52-49. The Spartans forced a turnover on Carnegie’s next possession and had the ball with 48 seconds remaining, 28 on the shot clock
Villa Park’s Julien Franklin missed a jumper, Carnegie rebounded and Arocha was fouled with 22.5 remaining. He made one of two free throws.
The Spartans broke the Wolverines’ full-court press and Isaiah Williams, on a half-court pass from Myles Franklin, scored on a layup for a 54-50 lead with 19 seconds remaining.
Carnegie’s Mumin Con Ozturk made a bank shot gliding across the lane with four seconds left to cut its deficit to 54-52.
Myles Franklin, Villa Park’s senior leader who had an off-night shooting and scored eight points, made two free throws on a one-and-one with 2.4 seconds remaining to put the game away, 56-52.
Villa Park will host Orange Glen of Escondido on Tuesday in the regional semifinals.
Villa Park won despite making 7 of 30 field goal attempts, 3 of 14 3-pointers, in the second half. It was 4 of 6 at the free throw line.
“We didn’t shoot the ball well at all,” Villa Park coach Kevin Reynolds said. “We just kept grinding it out on defense. We got a nice lead, but the ball would go in in the second half.”
Carnegie committed 19 turnovers, Villa Park eight.
“We wanted to speed them up,” Reynolds said.
Banuelos led Villa Park with 17 points. The 6-foot senior made 7 of 16 field goals including 3 of 11 3 pointers. Julien Franklin scored 16 points.
Kostas Altinis led Carnegie with 22 points. He connected on 8 of 13 from the field including 4 of 8 3 pointers.
Luka Filopovic, the Wolverines’ 7-foot center, scored two points on 1-of-8 shooting from the floor. He was guarded by 6-9 Daelyn Burns in Villa Park’s man-to-man, which it used throughout the game.
