ORANGE COUNTY PREP BASKETBALL : South Coast League : El Toro Shakes Slump to Beat Its Archrival Mission Viejo, 63-59

In the span of one Friday evening, the El Toro High School basketball team managed to:

--Snap a horrendous shooting slump.

--Snap a three-game losing streak.

--Defeat its archrival, Mission Viejo, 63-59, before a crowd of about 2,000 in the Chargers’ gym.

Not a bad trifecta for El Toro Coach Tim Travers, who had to be wondering if his team would ever break out of its cold spell.

For three games, the Chargers’ shooting percentage had hovered around the freezing point. El Toro, which relies heavily on the outside shooting of Bret Johnson, Mack Powell and Eric Speaker, couldn’t shoot better than 30% from the field.

But Friday night, El Toro made 25 of 50 shots from the floor for a sparkling 50% and sank several clutch free throws in the final moments as the Chargers (1-1 in league, 11-7 overall) held off the Diablos (1-1, 12-4) in a South Coast League game.

Bret Johnson scored 23 points, including a free throw with 17 seconds remaining, to give El Toro a 62-59 lead, and Powell added 15 points, including two free throws with 39 seconds left, that gave the Chargers a 60-57 lead.

Powell had six assists and Johnson had five, but center Cory Wayland was just as much a factor with his 9 points and 16 rebounds.

Wayland, who missed 6 of 8 free throws in the first three quarters, also made the front end of a one-and-one situation with 15 seconds to go that sealed the victory for El Toro.

El Toro had a 10-point lead (47-37) with about three minutes remaining in the third period, but that didn’t figure to hold up. Not with the way these teams usually play each other.

The last time Mission Viejo and El Toro met, Dec. 30 in the championship game of the Estancia Tournament, it took five overtimes for the Diablos to win, 75-71.

Friday night’s game appeared to be headed for overtime when Mission Viejo forward Jeff Herdman, who scored a game-high 24 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter, passed off to Dave Hall for a layup that cut El Toro’s lead to one, 56-55, with 2:14 left.

Johnson made two free throws at the other end to increase the lead to three, but Herdman came right back with two free throws to make it 58-57 with 1:27 left.

Speaker was then called for a traveling violation, but the Diablos failed to take the lead when Todd Matthews missed a jumper from the top of the key. Two free throws by Powell and one by Khari Johnson made it 61-57, El Toro.

Vince Merk made a jump shot with 23 seconds remaining to pull Mission Viejo to within two, 61-59, but that was as close as the Diablos would get. Bret Johnson made his free throw with 17 seconds left, and Wayland, after grabbing the rebound of Johnson’s second shot and being fouled, made one of two free throws to give the Chargers a four-point cushion.

“The way we’ve been struggling, there’s a tendency to keep looking for things to go wrong, but they didn’t,” Travers said. “Instead of looking over our backs, we looked ahead to the win. We’re a good shooting team, and, hopefully, we’re out of our dry spell.”

Irvine 59, San Clemente 47--The Vaqueros took an 18-8 first-quarter lead and were never challenged at San Clemente. Mike Herring led Irvine (2-0, 10-8) with 24 points, and Matt Norton added 11.