Coast Union overpowered 55-24 in CIF-Southern Section Division 5A playoffs

After winning the Coast Valley League (10-0), and holding off the AGBU Spartans in a thrilling 45-42 home victory in Round 1 of the CIF Division 5A tournament Wednesday, Coast Union got lucky and won the coin toss, allowing them to host Round 2 of the playoffs.

That’s where the Broncos’ luck ended, as the seven-player squad hosted St. Bernard from Playa Del Ray, a team of 15 lightning-quick and defensively aggressive players that totally stifled Coast Union in every facet of the game on Friday.

The Broncos faced a smothering, relentless full-court press at the start of the game, which forced constant turnovers. Coast’s offensive goal became simply a matter of trying to get the ball over midcourt in the allotted time of 10 seconds.

The score at halftime was 34-7; after three quarters, it was 46-16.

Auggie Johnson led the Broncos with nine points; Jez Lawson had five points and three rebounds. Sam MacKinnon grabbed four rebounds and had two points and Riley Kennedy tallied four points.

“We have nothing to hang our heads over this game, coach Tim May said. “We knew we were overmatched, but we continued to compete anyway and played the full 32 minutes.”

May, who teaches English literature at Coast Union, said when his team — five juniors and two sophomores — saw they were 31 points behind the number one team in Division 5A, they knew they would need to “… improve every facet of our game and try to close that gap as much as possible in the offseason.”

“These guys have met every challenge I have given them,” May said. “I’m thrilled to not only have them all back next year, but to put in a full offseason of hard work and effort.”

This story was originally published February 20, 2016 at 8:27 PM with the headline "Coast Union overpowered 55-24 in CIF-Southern Section Division 5A playoffs."