LAKE FOREST – If there was a moment that defined El Toro’s victory Wednesday over Ramona of Riverside, it took place with 6 minutes 45 seconds left in the second quarter.

Bridget Boyd, who aspired for so much more this season but has been a shell of herself after knee surgery, took the ball on the wing. The shot was hers to take. Instead, she stepped behind the 3-point line and dropped the ball into the bottom of the net. She did as she wished, same as her teammates, all night long.

And that’s the way it was for El Toro, which rolled through its CIF Southern Section Division 3A girls basketball quarterfinal for a 62-23 victory over Ramona.

Looking to reach the section finals for the first time since 1999, the Chargers improved to 17-11 and will play at Gahr of Cerritos in the semifinals Saturday.

Ramona finished the season 25-6.

“They came out on fire,” Ramona coach Brandon Fletcher said. “That’s a really, really good basketball team. I would be stunned if they don’t win our division.

“They were just spectacular. There were not a lot of answers for that tonight.”

Boyd, one of two players in the lineup (with Mariana Mina) who has scored at least 1,000 career points, had come off the bench and dropped a 3 from the corner to beat the first-quarter buzzer for a 17-4 lead.

Her step-back 3 made it 22-6, but it was indicative of El Toro doing as it pleased.

The Chargers were up 34-11 at halftime after Ramona’s Alandra Martinez hit a 3-pointer with 30 seconds left to prevent the Rams from being stuck in single digits.

“We can always play better,” said junior Mia Cubacub, who led El Toro with 17 points, including 7 in the first quarter as the Chargers scored the game’s first 10 points. “I don’t think we can be perfect. We try to be close to it, but I think we got pretty close tonight.”

Pretty close, and the timing is right. Boyd looked like the player she was last year when she averaged 12.4 points, about five more than this season. Coming off the bench, she’s a force. She scored 11, adding a third 3-pointer in the third quarter that matched a Ramona 3-point basket by Olivia Molina. It gave El Toro a 51-17 lead.

The Chargers literally had an answer for everything.

El Toro led 53-19 after three quarters, and when Cubacub scored from 15 feet, it extended the lead to 59-19, setting in motion a running clock for the duration.

It was only then that Ramona’s leading scorer this season, Jaiden Tibbels (15.9 points per game), made her only field goal – a 3-pointer with 4:57 left. She finished with 5 points.

Ramona’s other leading scorer, Molina (15.0 ppg) finished with 10 points. Nobody else for Ramona scored more than 3 points.

“Our defense was stupendous,” El Toro coach Patrick Nunez said. “We put together a great game plan and the players executed it flawlessly.”

He credited Mina and Lenzy Turner. “They played so well at the guard spot up top, they took Ramona out of their game. It was shocking. Our forwards did what they had to do to contain Molina.”

Those forwards were Boyd, Cubacub and Delyla Cabrera.

Mina scored 16 for El Toro, including 10 in the second quarter.

“We played this well once before, in the second Tesoro game in league, where we played a complete game,” Nunez said. “A lot of it came from our defense. We played so well on defense it drives our offense.

“Now we’re going to go back to work and do everything to put the girls in the right position to win in the semifinals.”

El Toro will be facing a Gahr team in the semifinals that upset top-seeded Lawndale, 48-42, on Wednesday.

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