PLACENTIA — Jordan Laws scored a game-high 31 points and had 14 rebounds as the Yorba Linda boys basketball team clinched a share of the Freeway League title with a 74-64 victory over rival El Dorado on Tuesday night at El Dorado High.
The Mustangs (19-6, 6-1) got some help from Sonora, which defeated Villa Park 80-76 in overtime Tuesday. The Spartans (17-9, 4-2) are now in second place with two league games remaining.
Villa Park and Yorba Linda split their season series, defeating each other on separate buzzer-beating shots.
“We just keep preaching to the boys that we control our own destiny,” Yorba Linda coach Jason Pietsch said, “we just gotta take care of ourselves and win. And if something else happens elsewhere, great.”
Laws was a force on the offensive glass and helped the Mustangs control the boards with a 38-18 rebounding advantage against the Golden Hawks (19-7, 3-4). Seventeen of the rebounds were on the offensive end.
“We tell him to put the cape on, because he can be Superman out there at times,” Pietsch said of Laws. “We think he’s as good of an athlete (as anyone) in the league and maybe in the county.”
El Dorado coach Ryan Mounce agreed that Laws had a huge impact on the outcome.
“They gave up 31 points to a really good player, probably the best athlete in our conference,” Mounce said about his team’s players. “But he got 25 or 26 of them off of offensive rebounds because we didn’t have the awareness to jump in front of him. Until we find those solutions and make those plays when we need to, this league does not offer you any sympathy.”
Rocco Gaffoglio scored 17 points for the Mustangs one game after setting a single-game school record by scoring 37 points against Troy last week.
“Rocco was a little down tonight,” Pietsch said. “He’s been battling a 102-degree fever since Friday and running it all weekend and was a little bit lethargic, but whatever, we’ll take what we can out of him.”
Pietsch was also complimentary of his key reserves.
“Zen Bhayani and Philip Hawkins came off the bench and played fabulous minutes,” Pietsch said. “Our big guy (Elyas Hasseem) got into some foul trouble there and Philip played well. We know what they can do, we see them in practice every day and when we’re in a tight game we’re going with the guys that got us here.”
Hawkins finished with nine points and Bhayani added four points in the second quarter, which helped the Mustangs take a 43-28 lead into halftime.
Marcelo Gonzalez led El Dorado with a team-high 17 points, including five 3-pointers, Noah Baker scored 14 points and Caleb Hendrix and Elias Rodarte finished with 11 points each.
With the Golden Hawks trailing by seven points late in the game, Gonzalez pulled up for a 3-point attempt and appeared to get fouled as he shot an airball, but no call was made. Mounce appealed to the refs and was assessed a technical foul for arguing. Gaffoglio made 1 of 2 free throws to give the Mustangs a 69-61 lead with 48.8 seconds left to play.
“He (Gonzalez) had a massive welt across his arm, both guys missed it,” Mounce said of the officials. “I’m going to advocate for my boys.”
The Golden Hawks are in third place in the league standings. They are vying for at least a third-place finish, which would give them an automatic berth to the CIF-SS playoffs. However, they would meet the criteria to qualify for an at-large bid regardless of where they finish in the standings.
El Dorado will host Villa Park on Friday in the final league game before ending the regular season against El Modena.
Yorba Linda faces Brea Olinda on Friday and can secure the league championship outright in its league-finale against Sonora on Tuesday, Feb. 4.
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