Boys' Basketball: Roundup of Tuesday Playoff Games

The 2011-12 school year might as well be defined as the year of the upset at Tesoro High.

Back during the football season, the Titans scored the when it upset top-seeded Servite in the second round of the Southern Section Pac-5 playoffs, 24-20.

Now, the boys’ basketball team has taken a page from the football playbook.

Behind an extraordinary team effort, and a 17-7 scoring advantage in the fourth quarter in front of its home fans, Tesoro shocked second-seeded Canyon Country Canyon, 62-56, in the Division 2AA playoffs.

Four players scored in double figures for Tesoro (15-13), an at-large team from the South Coast League. The Titans were led by Jalen Bruce with 17 points, but got monster efforts from Tanner Lancona, who scored 11 points and had 14 rebounds, and Nick Pallas, who scored 11 with 12 rebounds.

Jed Abello added 13 for Tesoro, which will have to win on the road in the quarterfinals to keep its championship hopes alive. The 16th-seeded Titans will face No. 7 Simi Valley Royal, a 59-47 winner over Villa Park.

Division 1A second round

Mission Viejo 63, Glendale 39: The top-seeded Diablos (25-3) produced a solid start and a strong finish to advance to the quarterfinals against Valencia West Ranch, a 101-64 winner over Edison. Mission will play that game on the road. Max Redfield scored 14, Michael Cramer 12 and Sage Stone 11 for Mission, which opened an 18-12 lead in the first quarter and closed with a 19-8 scoring advantage in the fourth.

El Toro 76, Huntington Beach 48: Cody White scored 24 points and Liam Skelly 13 to lead the fifth-seeded Chargers (22-8) past Huntington Beach (16-12). El Toro, which had a 20-1 run at one point, will play in La Crescenta at Crescenta Valley, a 67-55 winner over Downey Warren.

Corona 80, Aliso Niguel 62: The Sea View League champion Wolverines (20-9) were no match on the road for 11th-seeded Corona, which connected on seven three-point baskets in the first half—four in the first quarter—to build an early and insurmountable lead. Seeded sixth, Aliso was down by as many as 23 points in the fourth quarter before rallying to within 13. Bryan Fisher scored 15, Mauricio Campos 12 and Ronnie Harris 11 for Aliso.

Capistrano Valley 58, Walnut 39: The second-seeded Cougars (24-4) got 15 points from Chris Bench, 13 from Aleks Lipovic and 11 from Stephen Short  to advance to the quarterfinals. Capo will play at 10th-seeded Vista Murrieta, a 69-68 winner over No. 7 Chino Hills.

Division 3A quarterfinals

Santa Margarita 61, Corona del Mar 51: Wolfie Wood scored 25 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter, as the Eagles (17-13) held off Corona del Mar (17-11), which knocked SMCHS out of the playoffs in the first round a year ago. Santa Margarita outscored CdM in the second quarter, 15-3, and held a 20-point lead in the second half before the Sea Kings cut the deficit to eight points in the fourth quarter behind Max Stone, who had four three-pointers and finished with 17 points. He was complemented by Joey Calise with 12 points and Charlie Coffman with 11. Sophomore Joe Furstinger scored 11 for SMCHS, and Tyler Strauss had 9.

Editor's note: The original versio of this story misidentifed a player for Tesoro; it should have read Tanner Lancona, not Tyler Lancona. Patch regrets the error.