Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Prep Basketball:

Eldorado cruises past Coronado

Expanded coverage

After preparing themselves for a Sunrise Regional quarterfinal game on Tuesday, Eldorado had to wait another day for their playoffs to start following a controversy surrounding Desert Pines, which ended up giving the Sun Devils the No. 1 seed in the Northeast League.

When the team finally did make it onto the court Wednesday night, it was clear they were eager to play.

The Sun Devils never trailed as they blew out visiting Coronado 81-51, welcoming the Cougars to their house with five consecutive 3-pointers that gave them an early 18-0 lead.

"We had a lot of motivation coming into this one," said guard Mitrell Clark. "This is the playoffs and we don't want to go home."

Coronado tried to play catch-up, but never cut the lead to single digits.

In addition to a hot start offensively, the Sun Devils added one of their best defensive performances of the season.

The Cougars were held to 37.2 percent from the field on a 19-of-51 shooting performance. They committed 15 turnovers and didn't make a single trip to the free throw line until the second half. Senior Charlie Wakefield was the only Cougar to score in double digits, finishing with 18 points.

"We spend a lot of time working on defense," said Eldorado coach Mike Uzan. "We talk about the difference between smart fouls and bad fouls. All year long we've shut down teams at our place and that's something that we brag about. We look forward to playing defense and stopping people."

Clark led the Sun Devils in scoring with 28 points, including six 3-pointers. Senior Charles White added another three shots from beyond the arc and finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Combined, the team shot 10-of-17 from the outside.

"Since the game was cancelled [Tuesday], all we did was shoot," Clark said. "Once the ball leaves our hand we try to make sure it goes in. Once we start feeling it, it's a rap."

The entire Sunrise Regional bracket was affected by the Desert Pines issue, which stemmed from the use of ineligible players throughout the season that had missed class time. Although it appeared to do little to Eldorado besides add to their eagerness to play, it may have presented a challenge to lower-seeded teams that had made game plans against other opponents.

After preparing for the top seeded Desert Pines all week, Coronado coach Paul Berg said the late changes were frustrating.

"It was very distracting," Berg said. "The kids are in limbo, they don't know. We're playing one day, we're not playing the next. It was very distracting and it's unfortunate. You earn your right to play at this time of the year and then you have to worry about things like that."

Brett Okamoto can be reached at 948-7817 or [email protected].

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy