Breakers advance in playoffs

Laguna Beach High gained the upper hand on Covina in the first half of Wednesday’s CIF Southern Section boys’ basketball Division 4AA playoffs and the start helped propel the Breakers on to the second round of postseason play.

The Breakers advanced to play again Friday by defeating the visiting Colts, 50-41, at Dugger Gym.

Laguna, which improved to 22-6 with its fourth-straight win, led 13-8 after one quarter and took a 28-13 lead into halftime. Covina, an at-large entry to the playoffs from the Valle Vista League, came back to outscore the Breakers by eight points in the second half.

The Colts ended their season 12-16.

“I thought we played a really good first half, but didn’t really play a great second half,” Laguna Coach Bret Fleming said. “Covina’s a pretty decent team and have a couple of players who can shoot well, and shoot it deep. Isaac [Wulff] and Darin [Richardson] picked up those shooters and did a really nice job defensively.

“I was happy with the way we locked down on defense. We held them to 13 points in the first half. In the second half, we weren’t as good on the defensive boards and offensively, I thought we kind of stopped playing who we are. We played more individually, really weren’t moving the ball and were somewhat stagnant.”

Sophomore forward Blake Burzell went for a game-high 18 points. Senior guard Darin Richardson was next with nine points, senior guard Isaac Wulff scored eight points, senior guard Spencer Wong six points, senior center Nick Rahder four points, sophomore guard Charlie Rounaghi three points, and sophomore forward Adam Armstrong had two points.

The win advances Orange Coast League champion Laguna on to a second-round game at 7 p.m. Friday. They will head north to play at Atascadero, the third-place team from the PAC 8 League. The Greyhounds routed visiting Bassett in a first-round game Wednesday, 77-39, to run their winning streak to six games.

The Laguna-Atascadero winner moves on to play in the division quarterfinals at 7 p.m. Tuesday against the winner of Friday’s second-round game between second-seeded Harvard-Westlake and City of Industry Workman.

Fleming said he watched game film on the Greyhounds Wednesday night and Thursday.

“They are a good team, overall,” he said. “They’ve got some size and a 6-foot-4 wing player [Elijah Cooks] who is a very good athlete. They play hard. We have a long bus ride and a tough trip Friday.”

The Breakers could be without Burzell Friday. He left Wednesday’s game with a knee injury he sustained during a collision under the basket in the fourth quarter. Fleming said Burzell suffered a sprain and is “very questionable” for the game.

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Girls’ Basketball

The Orange Coast League co-champion Breakers, idle since wrapping up only the second league title for the program with a Feb. 10 win over Calvary Chapel, launched their CIF-SS Division 4AA playoff hopes Thursday with a home game against La Puente. The score wasn’t available at press time.

The La Puente-Laguna winner advances to play a 7 p.m. second-round game Saturday and will take on the winner of the Thursday’s first-round game between Santa Fe Springs St. Paul and Thousand Oaks La Reina.

The Breakers, who share the OCL title with Estancia, took a 19-7 record into the postseason.

The Warriors were 9-14 and an at-large entry to the playoffs from the Miramonte League.