CdM gets blowout win

ANAHEIM — Out of breath, the lone freshman on the Corona del Mar High boys’ basketball team motioned to Coach Ryan Schachter.

Clayton Ragsdale wanted out of the Sea Kings’ opening-round game of the La Quinta Tournament. Schachter, surprised, yelled out, “Give me two more minutes, that’s all that’s left.”

Ragsdale slowly walked over to the bench. He did his part to stop Westminster point guard Keshad Adeniyi in the second half. Now it was someone else’s job in garbage time.

Schachter called on his starting point guard, Erik Rask, with CdM on its way to an 87-59 blowout victory against Westminster Monday night at Servite High.

Rask didn’t mind being the only starter in the game. It was the season opener, plus the senior needs the extra minutes to get back into basketball shape after missing last year due a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee suffered playing football as a junior.

Rask entered and even though the rust from being away for so long still showed late, Schachter was just pleased to see Rask on the court again. Rask figures to be an integral factor in whether the Sea Kings can repeat as CIF Southern Section Division III-A champions.

“A lot of it is getting him back in the flow and making the right decisions,” Schachter said. “He wasn’t the only one [making mistakes]. We were just kind of putting our head down and trying to get to the rim and [the Lions] did a great job taking charges.”

Early on, Rask tried to bulldoze his way to the basket as if he were playing linebacker trying to get to a running back. This time the player with the ball proved to be elusive in the first quarter for Westminster, as Adeniyi made it a game.

Adeniyi beat the Sea Kings’ defense, scoring 13 of Westminster’s 19 points as the Lions trailed by three heading into the second quarter.

Then Rask and backup Ragsdale slowed the senior down with the help of an extra defender, eliminating any chance that a program that hasn’t made it to the postseason in recent years would pull off the upset. With Adeniyi forced to give up the ball because, as he put it, “I didn’t want to be selfish,” CdM appeared on its way to turning this one into a laugher.

After a jumper 34 seconds into the second quarter, Adeniyi, who finished with 25, didn’t make another field goal until the 3:03 mark in the fourth. He went zero for 13 during the stretch, and by then CdM 6-foot-9 center Stefan Kaluz had already toyed with the smaller Lions.

The Brown University-bound senior finished with a game-high 29 points, 14 rebounds and two blocks. Kaluz scored 12 points in the third, when CdM allowed only one field goal en route to outscoring Westminster, 25-5, to go ahead, 70-39.

“We just put it together,” said Kaluz, last year’s CIF Southern Section Division III-A Player of the Year, who made 14 of 18 shots from the field. “It’s really important to get off to a good start. We should hopefully do some good things this year. We have a lot of great players on the team and a lot of good talent.

“I was really happy to see everybody get to play.”

Everyone got into the act for the Sea Kings, who will next play on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. against Fountain Valley in the quarterfinals of the 16-team tournament.

For a couple of starters, small forward Joe Eberhard and shooting guard Sean Donovan, the statistics could’ve been more impressive if they hadn’t sat the entire fourth. Eberhard finished with an all-around game: 17 points, nine rebounds and three steals.

Donovan added 11 points and three steals.

Rask contributed four points and distributed the ball well, allowing the team to get easy shots. So did Ragsdale, who added five points in his first varsity game.

Ragsdale’s precise pass to a streaking Kaluz down the baseline that resulted in a two-handed dunk late in the third caused the bench to explode because the players knew they’d be coming in shortly.

“It’s very nice to be able to look on the bench and I got six guys that I can plug in and all of them I know are going to play hard and give me quality minutes,” said Schachter, who has a deeper bench than a year ago, when CdM went 22-8 and won a share of the Pacific Coast League title by going 7-1. “I wanted [Ragsdale] to finish it, but then I asked Erik, ‘Hey, you want to get in?’ Erik said, ‘Yeah!’ Erik wants to get that [basketball] feeling back.”

La Quinta Tournament First round

Corona del Mar 87, Westminster 59

SCORE BY QUARTERS

CdM – Kaluz 29, Eberhard 17, Donovan 11, Brakeville 5, Ragsdale 5, E. Rask 4, Meshkin 4, Gallian 4, Anand 4, Alder 3, Jones 1.

3-pt. goals – Alder 1, Donovan 1, Brakeville 1.

Fouled out - None.

Technicals - None.

W – Adeniyi 25, Garbutt 18, Lykes 10, Garcia 3, Camerena 2, Cruz 1.

3-pt. goals – Adeniyi 2, Garbutt 1, Garcia 1.

Fouled out - None.

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at david.carrillo@latimes.com.