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High School Sports

Capistrano Valley Uses Defense to Upset Villa Park

By Ben Bolch
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Pete DeCasas scored 16 points and Matt Sweany added 12 as Mission Viejo Capistrano Valley, The Times’ 25th-ranked basketball team, upset No. 5 Villa Park, 61-48, on Saturday to win the Anaheim Convention Center Tournament.

“This is a huge boost for us,” said DeCasas, the tournament most valuable player whose layup off a steal in the second quarter gave Capistrano Valley a nine-point lead. The Cougars (8-3) used tenacious defense to stretch their advantage to as many as 17 points in the fourth quarter.

Sean Phaler scored a game-high 17 points for Villa Park (11-1), which took its last lead early in the second quarter before Capistrano Valley went on a 16-6 run to take control.

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Ben Bolch

Ben Bolch has been a Los Angeles Times staff writer since 1999. He is serving his second stint as the UCLA beat writer, which seems fitting since he has covered almost every sports beat except hockey and horse racing. Bolch is also the author of the recently released book “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.” He previously covered UCLA basketball from 2010-11 before going on to cover the NBA and the Clippers for five years. He happily traded in gobs of hotel points and airline miles to return to cover UCLA basketball and football in the summer of 2016. Bolch was once selected by NBA TV’s “The Starters” as the “Worst of the Week” after questioning their celebrity journalism-style questions at an NBA All-Star game and considers it one of his finer moments.

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