The Lompoc boys basketball team and their sixth man fans started slow, but finished very strong. The Braves pulled away in a strong second half, defeating Azusa 53-36, in a first round game of the CIF Division IIIAA playoffs Friday night at Paisola Pavilion.

Trailing 17-16 at the half, Lompoc used a strong pressure defense to outscore the Aztecs 37 19 after the break. The Braves did it by making several transition baskets off of defensive steals.

“Thank God we did that,” said Lompoc coach Jeff Jones. “Offensively we didn't do much for about two-and-a-half quarters.”

Lompoc started slowly in the first quarter, with only guard Mikell Ray scoring. He had all three baskets in the first. Lompoc had several open shots, but missed them badly in the quarter. They passed up several others, trying to drive into the key to no avail.

“It was mainly us,” explained Jones. “We were erratic, some of the shots were open, but we did some crazy stuff.

After Ray scored his third basket of the quarter, Azusa scored the last two baskets to make the score 12-6 after one.

In the second, the Braves scored the first eight points to take a 14-12 lead. Luke Carpio hit a 3-pointer, Kirk Fridrich scored on a short jumper and Steven Morehart scored a traditional 3-point play, with a lay-up, plus one free-throw.

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Azusa scored two of the last three baskets to end the quarter with a 17-16 lead.

Aztecs guard Donovan Covington scored a basket and two free-throws to open the third quarter, giving Azusa a 21-16 lead. Lompoc then scored nine unanswered points over the next two minutes, taking a lead they would not surrender.

Joe Alerta hit his only basket of the night, a 3-pointer, at the 2:00 minute mark, making the score, 28-24. At this point, the crowd noise began to rattle the Aztecs. Joseph Rangell missed two free-throws, badly, and the fans became as loud as they have been all year.

Lompoc led 32-26 at the end of the third quarter, mostly because of the pressure they were applying on defense.

“We were so erratic with the ball,” Jones said. “I wanted to slow down with the ball, but defensively I wanted to get in their face. We got a lot of turnovers on defense.”

And after Lompoc began to turn things on in the second half, they not only scored on turnovers, but they also began to hit shots that they missed so often in the first half.

“We were tight as a drum,” said Jones, “But there's nothing like baskets to get loose. It was mainly lay-ups from defense, and then we started to loosen up.”

“We stepped up our intensity on defense,” said guard Luke Carpio, “and that picked up our offense. The easy baskets built up our confidence, then we started to hit our shots.”

Azusa did not make a basket in the fourth quarter until James Owens hit a 3-pointer with 1:04 remaining. Up until that point, they were only able to hit five of seven free-throws. Meanwhile Lompoc had scored 19 points to lead 51-31 before Owens hit the three.

With the absence of leading scorer Anthony Burtley in the center of the Lompoc offense, several players needed to step up. One was forward Tim Ochoa. He had several rebounds, covered Azusa's top rebounder and scored seven points, all in the second half.

“His (Ochoa's) gave us the spark that we had to have,” said Jones. “We certainly didn't have quite the same success we had today, without him.”

“I just came in and tried to play my role,” Ochoa explained. “It seemed at the beginning we were playing under pressure. Then we calmed down and just played our game. Our defensive pressure was great. It was a whole team effort.”

Mikell Ray led the Braves with 18 points. Carpio scored nine on three 3-pointers.

Lompoc will play Ribet Academy on Tuesday night. The number two team from the Harbor League defeated Century 59-48.

Atascadero 69, Rio Mesa 49

Atascadero flexed its muscle in the fourth quarter, breaking the Rio Mesa defense to score down low in the first round of the Div. II-A CIF-SS playoffs.

“They trapped us and we got behind the trap,” Greyhounds coach Jerry Tamelier said.

The Greyhounds 6-5, 210 pound senior Andrew McMillian was the hammer, scoring 21 points and leading a 38-20 rebound advantage. Danny Thomas and McMillian had nine rebounds apiece.

The guards weren't bad either, racking up 20 assists to just 13 turnovers. Thomas had 17 points and Ryan Wittenburg contributed 11.

Atascadero faces Rancho Verde in the second round on Tuesday.

Arroyo Grande 44, Palmdale 42

PALMDALE - Lyle Parsons scored 10 points and made the winning layup with 38 seconds left as the Eagles (14-12) shocked the top-seeded Falcons (21-6) in the first round of Division II-A.

Daniel Wrage led Arroyo Grande with 12 points. Chris Hicks led Palmdale with 12.

Feb. 17, 2007