BOYS BASKETBALL: El Camino 'D' Hounds Cap

The Score: El Camino 79, Capuchino 56.

The Star: Colts point guard Elijah White scored 17 points, handed out seven assists and added four rebounds to lead the host team to victory in the Martin Luther King Jr. Classic.

The Turning Point: El Camino closed the first quarter on a 19-0 run to take a 19-4 lead.

The Quote: “He's the engine. He's the one that bought in and said, 'We're going to push the ball,' so he's pushing the ball, looking up court, trying to get open wings. Someone with his savvy is nice to have on your team.” -- El Camino assistant coach Archie Junio, on point guard Elijah White.

What's Next? El Camino returns to Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division play on Wednesday when it hosts Aragon at 6 p.m. earlier Monday in the MLK Classic. Meanwhile, Capuchino goes back to PAL Lake Division when it travels to play Westmoor on Wednesday, also at 6 p.m.

The Bottom Line: Capuchino turned the ball over 12 times in the first quarter and 26 times overall. El Camino scored the final 19 points of the first quarter to open up a 19-4 lead.

__________________________________________________________________________________

The Capuchino High boys basketball team was inbounding the ball from the offensive baseline. The pass was lobbed deep to Carlo Veridiano. El Camino's Elijah White contested the pass, tipped it away from Veridiano, and sped after the ball, converting it into an easy layup.

That was the 22nd of Capuchino's 26 turnovers on Monday night. Given that, the final score wasn't much of a surprise – El Camino cruised to a 79-56 victory in the final game of the Martin Luther King Jr. Classic at El Camino.

The game was supposed to be a measuring stick for Capuchino, which entered the game 11-4 on the year, 2-0 in the Peninsula Athletic League Lake Division. El Camino plays in the Bay Division, which is the strongest of the PAL’s three divisions.

In essence, the big dog kicked the little dog out of the house.

“I thought El Camino played very well tonight,” Capuchino coach Doug Fountain said. “I thought that our play tonight was uncharacteristic of our team. Instead of playing as a team, we played too much as individuals which caused a lot of the turnovers. We just seemed disjointed out there and that's not the way we've been playing.”

The turnovers came from the start. The Mustangs opened a 4-0 lead, then didn't score for the rest of the first quarter. The Colts scored 19 unanswered points, with Capuchino committing 12 turnovers.

El Camino (10-6, 1-1 PAL Bay) was coming off of a tough 59-52 loss to Burlingame on Friday. The Colts have been evolving this season, changing midstream from a half-court team to a pressing team, to take advantage of talents such as White. He scored a game-high 17 points, handed out seven assists and even grabbed four rebounds to lead the onslaught.

“We had a little change in our philosophy,” Colts assistant coach Archie Junio said. “Now, we're running a little bit more in transition, pushing the ball a little bit more and it seems to get more people involved. I think they're more enthusiastic knowing that the opportunity to play is there.”

Junio and the rest of the assistants were in charge on Monday as head coach Anthony Khoo is taking time off after the birth of his son Landon on Thursday.

The up-tempo game was installed in the last couple of weeks. White, a sophomore, said he's been playing that kind of game all his life and that it plays to his strengths.

“That's the strongest part of my game,” he said. “Pushing up-tempo. I'm trying to get better in the half-court offense so even if we get stopped we can do the half-court.”

White had plenty of teammates to pass to on Monday. Anthony Knight scored 15 points and Justin Tuason added 14. Branden Halal added 12 off of the bench.

Capuchino was led by Evan Baker and Adrian Macareag, who had 12 points apiece. Macareag scored all of his points in the fourth quarter. Daniel Afeaki scored 11 points and grabbed seven rebounds.

Any hopes of a Mustang comeback were squashed when El Camino scored the first nine points of the third quarter to open up a 48-24 lead. Capuchino went 0 for 3 from the floor and turned the ball over four times during the stretch.

___________________________________________________________________________________

El Camino 79, Capuchino 56

C -- 4 20 11 21 -- 56

EC -- 19 20 20 20 -- 79

CAPUCHINO

Carlo Veridiano 1-4 0-1 2, Evan Baker 4-13 2-2 12, Michael Alva 1-1 0-0 2, Daniel Afeaki 5-10 1-4 11, Zack Khotz 3-7 0-0 6, Mark Luttrell 1-2 0-0 2, Adrian Macareag 5-12 1-1 12, John Ababseh 1-2 0-0 2, Alex Arzadon 2-4 3-3 7, Zafir Khan 0-0 0-0 0, Dajon O'Neal 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 23-55 7-11 56.

EL CAMINO

Anthony Knight 5-16 5-8 15, Elijah White 4-10 8-9 17, Allan Santos, Jr. 1-3 0-0 2, Justin Tuason 6-10 1-4 14, Justin Eclavea 0-0 0-0 0, Richard Mathiesen 1-1 0-0 2, Truman Lee 0-1 0-0 0, Brandon Halal 4-7 0-0 12, Michael Smith 2-3 1-2 5, Jeff Chazer 1-1 0-0 2, Ryan Anderson 2-4 0-0 4, Matt Azzopardi 3-3 0-0 6. Totals: 29-59 15-23 79.

3-point goals: CAP – Baker 2-6, Macareag 1-4, Veridiano 0-2. Totals: 3-12. EC – Halal 4-6, Tuason 1-3, White 1-4, Santos 0-1, Lee 0-1, Knight 0-3. Totals: 6-18.

Fouled out: None. Technicals: None.

Highlights: CAP – Khotz 9 rebounds; Afeaki 7 rebounds. EC – Knight 8 rebounds; White 7 assists.

Records: El Camino 10-6. Capuchino 11-5.