Basketball: Capistrano Valley Outlasts El Toro, 52-49

Nick Thomas had a bum knee, and his teammates had just blown a 10-point lead under a Friday night seige of three-point baskets by El Toro shooters.

But Thomas and Capistrano Valley ended up winners anyway. The Cougars, on the strength of 17 seniors, showed their poise down the stretch and held on to win in the El Toro gym, 52-49, to remain unbeaten in South Coast League play.

Capistrano Valley (20-2, 6-0) is ranked No. 1 in the Southern Section Division 1A rankings, and El Toro (18-6, 2-3) is No. 5. 

Thomas hurt his knee on Tuesday and Coach Brian Mulligan said one doctor has said that the team's starting point guard could be out for "three or four weeks."

That could really hurt, but in the meantime, Capo Valley showed its mettle by stepping up without Thomas, who scored 26 in a 58-40 victory the last time the teams met.

"El Toro is a place where we traditionally have a game like this," Mulligan said. "We know that even though we beat them by 18 the first time that it's going to be a game like this. No matter what their record is, no matter what ours is, it's a hostile crowd—a great crowd—it's a good rivalry. ... it's a great win for us, and we really feel like this was a gigantic hurdle on the way to a league championship if, in fact, we're going to get one.

"At El Toro on a Friday night—that's not pretty."

Aleks Lipovic moved from shooting guard to point guard and scored 19 for the Cougars. Danny Portillo took Lipovic's spot at shooting guard and scored three.

And every point seemed to matter as the game went to the wire. Jordan Faison's rushed three-point shot bouncing off the rim was the only thing that separated the two teams from overtime.

Faison was plagued by foul trouble and scored only five points, but Cody White scored 18 for El Toro and Ryan Roberts scored 10. They each had two three-point baskets among the five that El Toro made in the third quarter as part of an 18-4 run that turned a 28-18 deficit into a 36-32 lead.

El Toro went cold after that and didn't score for another seven minutes against the Capo defense.

Stephen Short scored five of his 11 points in the final three minutes to give Capo a 49-44 lead. El Toro's Roberts then scored five, including a three-pointer with 19 seconds to go to make it 51-49, but Johnny Bates held firm at the free-throw line.

Bates—who finished with nine points for Capo Valley—made three of four free throws in the final 26 seconds, the last with 17 seconds left, which put the pressure on the Chargers to make a ninth three-point basket. It didn't happen as Faison's shot was short.