Another dominating effort by No. 2 Capo Valley
MISSION VIEJO - Way back on Dec. 3, Capistrano Valley faced Mater Dei in the championship game of the Mission Viejo Diablos Inferno Tournament.
It’s a game Capo Valley remembers quite vividly for all the wrong reasons.
That night, the top-ranked team in Orange County hung 91 points on the Cougars and won by 36 points. Fast forward 62 days and it seems like that thumping happened eons ago.
On Friday, the Cougars went on the road and trounced Trabuco Hills, 52-20, behind Aleks Lipovic’s game-high 11 points.
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“Let me start off by saying, maybe Mater Dei is that much better than us,” Cougars coach Brian Mulligan said. “Maybe they’re just that good.”
He might be right, but his team isn’t too bad itself.
Since that loss, second-ranked Capistrano Valley (21-2, 7-0) has won 18 of 19, defeated four currently-ranked county teams - plus two more just outside the top 10 - and has run flawlessly through the South Coast League.
“We’ve been playing a lot less selfish recently,” Mulligan said. “Our kids now care about defensive stands and stops.”
On the eve of the final week of the regular season, the Cougars turned in a virtuoso performance on both ends of the court.
Trabuco Hills (14-10, 6-2) simply had no answer for the visitors’ size.
Capo Valley grabbed 13 offensive rebounds, scored 11 second-chance points and blocked seven shots.
“Chris Bench has been a major factor since that game,” Mulligan said of his big man’s progression since Dec. 3. “He’s down low altering shots, changing shots and grabbing every defensive rebound. He’s turned a huge corner for us.”
The Cougars outscored the hosts, 16-5, in the first quarter and inflated their lead to 24 by halftime.
“We were really focused defensively, especially early on,” Mulligan said. “We played as good a half as we’ve played in a very long time.”
After falling to nonleague opponent Crenshaw on Dec. 29, the Cougars have rolled off nine straight wins and currently own the coveted No. 1 playoff seed in their respective division.
Of course, there’s still a long way to go.
“We talk about staying focused all the time,” Mulligan said. “We don’t want to give away what we’ve built up. Our kids understand what they’re playing for right now.”
