CdM survives Barons’ scare

WESTMINSTER — From the start, the pace on the court came to a crawl.

Every player Corona del Mar High defended seemed to give up the basketball. Fountain Valley players opted to shoot at the last possible second before the buzzer went off, a sound that they lost their chance to shoot.

Back and forth they passed the ball as often as it takes a soccer team to produce a quality scoring opportunity. A maddening situation for the Sea Kings, knowing the Barons planned to limit their possessions.

In CdM’s way of getting past a pesky opponent in the quarterfinals of the La Quinta Tournament was a jam Wednesday.

The tempo caused both teams to combine for 31 points at halftime. The Sea Kings scored more by themselves in the first half of their season opener. When the Barons played defense, they crowded the middle, taking CdM 6-foot-9 center Stefan Kaluz out of the game.

Adam Brakeville had enough as he sparked CdM at the start of the second half. The new Sea King went on his own 7-0 run, matching the team’s first-quarter output in a little more than a minute’s time to give CdM a cushion en route to a 48-39 victory at La Quinta High.

“Without him we’d be in serious trouble,” said CdM Coach Ryan Schachter of the 6-6 Brakeville, who finished with nine points. “No one really brought their A game. It was very ugly.”

So repulsive that Fountain Valley guard Artie O’Keefe said the Sea Kings, the defending CIF Southern Section Division III-A champions, began bickering.

O’Keefe played a major part in that by scoring a team-high 12 points. No other player scored in double figures for Fountain Valley, which finished in fourth place in the competitive Sunset League last year.

“They were getting mad at each other,” said O’Keefe, who made five of eight shots from the floor. “They’re just tall. The fact that they won CIF last year, I don’t really look at that [as something intimidating].”

The Sea Kings (2-0) looked nothing like title contenders, even in the 16-team tournament to Schachter. He’ll take an ugly win as the Sea Kings advance to play El Toro (4-0) Friday in the semifinals at 8 p.m at La Quinta.

But Schachter said if the Sea Kings shoot 25% percent from the floor like they did in the first half Wednesday, the game matching up the defending Pacific Coast League champ against the defending Sea View League champ won’t be close.

Most of all the outside shots against Fountain Valley (3-3) were open looks as the zone defense converged on Kaluz when the Brown University-bound senior set up shop inside the paint, or touched the ball.

Kaluz didn’t see it much in the second quarter, where he attempted only one field goal. In the third quarter, after seeing teammates struggle from behind the three-point line, going three of 15 at the time, Kaluz knocked down a three-pointer near the bench to give CdM a 26-21 lead with 3:20 left.

Then Kaluz began to get involved in another way a big man should — rebounding. He recorded his first board in the game with 29 seconds left in the third. It came on his own miss, allowing the Sea Kings to extend their lead to nine points during a 6-0 run to close out the quarter.

“It wasn’t a very pretty game,” said Kaluz, who led CdM with 15 points and added three blocks and three rebounds, the latter number is his lowest since he grabbed three as a sophomore in a win over Tesoro on Jan. 11, 2006. “I need to play better.”

The entire team needs to if you ask 6-6 small forward Joe Eberhard, especially when it gets physical. Eberhard, who finished with nine points, led the team with six rebounds as CdM barely won the rebound battle against the smaller Barons, 22-21.

The Sea Kings missed several opportunities to convert baskets when the Barons hit them in the act of shooting. The referees allowed the teams to play, as the first free-throw attempt came at the 6:06 mark in the fourth.

“We got to make that adjustment,” Schachter said. “Too many [easy] shots missed, we got to finish with contact. We got a lot of work to do [today] in practice and talk about what our goals are. We got to bring it on Friday, or it could get ugly.”

La Quinta Tournament

Quarterfinal

Corona del Mar 48,

Fountain Valley 39

SCORE BY QUARTERS

FV – O’Keefe 12, Pepper 7, Lee 6, Marquez 6, Swartz 4, Camarena 2, James 2.

3-pt. goals – O’Keefe 2, Pepper 1.

CdM – Kaluz 15, Brakeville 9, Eberhard 9, Gallian 5, Donovan 5, Ragsdale 3, E. Rask 2.

3-pt. goals – Ragsdale 1, Kaluz 1, Eberhard 1, Brakeville 1, Donovan 1.

Technicals - None.

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