Cold Shooting Dooms El Toro in Close Loss

El Toro Coach Vincent Avitabile knew the Chargers didn’t match up well, particularly inside, with Oceanside El Camino in a Southern California Division I girls’ basketball first-round playoff game Tuesday night at El Camino High.

“We have to shoot well. Our shots have to fall,” Avitabile said before the game.

They didn’t, and El Toro was eliminated, 54-51. El Camino (25-3) advanced to play Pacific Palisades.

But it just as easily could have been the Chargers (23-6) had they shot better than 18 of 51 from the field, including three of 15 three-point attempts. Guard Giuliana Mendiola, for instance, the team’s leading scorer, was nine of 25 from the field and led all scorers with 22 points.

But Mendiola (two of nine from three-point range) couldn’t find her touch and her frustrated teammates followed suit. Sister Gioconda Mendiola scored nine points but made only two of 13 field-goal attempts.

That certainly helped El Camino erase a nine-point, first-quarter deficit, until they took a 29-27 lead on a driving basket by Marisa Lattin with 6 minutes 36 seconds left in the third quarter.

El Toro regained a four-point lead later in the quarter, but El Camino went on a 10-2 run for a 45-39 lead with 6:33 left.

The Wildcats never trailed again.

Two free throws by Giuliana Mendiola cut the Wildcats’ lead to 52-51 with 38 seconds to go.

El Toro got the ball back and worked the game clock down to 10 seconds. Giuliana Mendiola drove into the key, but under heavy pressure passed to forward Ingrid Look, who was wide open under the basket. But Look’s lay-up attempt rolled off the rim and El Camino rebounded.

“That wasn’t supposed to be the play,” El Toro forward Amy Everett said. “It just developed.”

Unfortunately for El Toro, that’s how the entire night developed.

Center Oni Mauga led El Camino with 18 points and 10 rebounds. She said the Wildcats have played close games all season.

“We went in at halftime and saw that we were only down by two and thought that if we played tough defense in the second half we could win.”