A big scoring surge in the second quarter followed by clutch 3-point shooting in the fourth quarter pushed the Esperanza boys basketball team past Keppel 59-52 in the second round of the CIF-Southern Section Division 4AA playoffs on Friday night.
Esperanza (19-11) will now play the winner of Beaumont-Troy on Tuesday in the quarterfinals with a chance to qualify for the CIF state playoffs.
“It was huge,” said Esperanza coach Anthony Ballestero of his players’ performance. “Our guys came out and played hard for 32 minutes. It was awesome.”
Esperanza was led by seniors Jaxson LaGraffe and Ryan Huston. LaGraffe scored a game-high 17 points. Huston scored 16 and grabbed 10 rebounds for a double-double. He knocked down five 3-pointers. Two of those came during a 15-0 run to start the second quarter. Two others came in the fourth quarter as he helped stop a late Keppel surge.
The Aztecs trailed Keppel 15-12 to start the second quarter before that 15-0 run gave them a 12-point lead. Huston started the scoring run by calmly sinking a 3 at the top of the key to tie the game at 15. Moments later, he hit a 3 from 21-feet out to give Esperanza an 18-15 lead. It was a lead the team never surrendered. LaGraffe later hit a 3 to give Esperanza a 25-15 lead.
Esperanza held Keppel to only three points in the second period and that came via a Kyle Tam 3-pointer with just 58 seconds remaining before halftime to cut the Esperanza lead to nine.
“Esperanza is solid,” said Keppel coach Hung Duong. “We saw them on film and knew we had our work cut out for ourselves. They run their stuff really well. They’re strong and really well-conditioned. I think today, conditioning-wise, we just didn’t have enough.”
Keppel trailed 27-18 at halftime and 41-32 to start the fourth quarter. Keppel fell behind 43-32 early in the final period but didn’t go away quietly. A 9-2 run cut the Esperanza lead to 45-41 with 5:15 left. It was led by James Preciado who hit two 3s in that run. Tam hit a layup during the run and a free throw after he was fouled to cap an old school three-point play.
However, Keppel would get no closer. On Esperanza’s next possession, after Keppel cut the lead to four, Huston sank a 3 to put the Aztecs back up by seven. That sparked a 9-2 run by Esperanza to put the Aztecs back up 11 at 54-43 with 1:51 remaining. Another 3 by Huston was the book end for that run that ultimately sealed the game for Esperanza.
“(Huston) coming out and hitting those big shots for us was awesome,” said Ballestero. “He’s really a catalyst for us on the offensive end.”
Zach Rentch added 11 points and 10 rebounds for Esperanza, coming off the bench.
“(Rentch) is in and out of the starting lineup for us but he always plays starter minutes for us,” Rentch said. “(Ethan Ly) is a heck of a player and (Rentch) came in and shut (Ly) down for the most part as much as he could.”
Esperanza hit 10 3-pointers and dominated the boards, out-rebounding Keppel 46-28.
“Our gym is not an easy place to shoot so we were hoping (Esperanza) wouldn’t make them,” Duong said. “But they were hitting a lot of 3’s. When you give up 10 3’s it’s hard to win.”
Keppel (20-9) was led by Ly who scored 15 points and hauled down eight rebounds. Darrin Chung scored 14 points while Tam and Preciado each had nine.
Keppel finished the season with a second-place finish in the Almont League. Duong said he was proud of his players for winning 20 games. He said he wasn’t sure that would happen because the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the previous two seasons. Duong’s also optimistic about his team next season with both Ly and Tam returning.
“I like our chances of winning league,” Duong said. “I think it’s pretty solid next year. We got a good group of at least five kids coming back.”