“I thought we played solid on defense and we scored enough to win the game tonight,” said London head coach Robbie Moreno. “We played a great San Perlita side tonight. We played them in district last year so we knew a little bit about them and we knew they were going to be tough.”
With 3:25 remaining in the game, San Perlita’s Michael Johnson gave the home crowd some hope as the senior stepped back and nailed a three pointer to cut London’s lead to four.
However, London came right back and scored four unanswered points stretching the lead back up to 43-34, dashing San Perlita’s hopes of a comeback.
The Trojans came out and quickly mounted a 4-0 run to begin the game. But London’s Tristan Gonzalez leveled the score halfway through the first quarter. However, San Perlita came right back behind a pair of buckets from Johnson and DeAandre Gomez to end the period ahead 8-4.
London came out in the second quarter and took the lead behind a pair of buckets from junior Tony Gatica as the Pirates ended the half up 19-17.
London’s suffocating defense forced the home side to commit careless turnovers and kept the Trojans off the scoreboard for most of the third quarter.
“We felt prepared on defense today,” said Moreno. “The only thing I wondering is if we could score and we scored enough to come away with the victory tonight.”
London’s Gatica had a game-high 19 points going 7 of 8 from the from the free-throw line.
“He’s been playing for me since he was a freshman so he has a lot of games under his belt,” said Moreno of Gatica. “He controlled the game for us tonight and he is also our captain.”
The junior hit a shot from beyond the arch midway through the third period to widen the lead to 10, which was the biggest lead London had all night.