Bonita Goes Missing Early, Falls to Pasadena, 64-50

Coach Eckler calls an early time-out to try get the Bearcats back to playing Bonita basketball.

To Sir Walter Raleigh’s Lost Colony of 1587 and the infamous 18-minute gap of the Nixon White House tapes, you can now add Bonita’s disappearance at the start of the Bonita-Pasadena quarterfinal basketball game on Tuesday night in the Crown City.

“We lost it in the first five minutes,” Bonita coach Greg Eckler said. “We sort of got blitzed. When we found ourselves in the second quarter, we’re already down 15.”

Actually, Bonita fell behind 22-4 late in the first quarter, and was never able to recover from Pasadena’s early barrage, falling to the Bulldogs 64-50.

In the opening quarter, Dane Hollar scored four points for Bonita and Matt Adamo hit a three at the end of the period. Otherwise, it was all Pasadena, which featured a suffocating full-court press that created nine Bearcats turnovers in the first eight minutes of play. Pasadena led 22-7 after one quarter.

After barely surviving the first quarter, Bonita indeed found itself, actually outscoring the Bulldogs by a point over the final three periods.

“I thought we fought hard the last three quarters,” Eckler said.

Each time, Bonita tried to mount a rally, Pasadena had an answer, led by sophomore guard Ajon Efferson’s game-high 18 points, many of them coming at critical times in the contest.  The Bulldogs’ Blake Hamilton chipped in with 16 points, including two slam dunks, and a game-leading 14 rebounds.

Leading Bonita were Matt Adamo with 14 points, Brandon Ko with 13 and Brian Mahood with 12.

Early in the fourth, Bonita finally cut the lead to 10, 49-39, but the referees, who seemingly let both teams play freely in the first three quarters, called Bonita’s Garrett Horine for two ticky-tack baseline fouls, sending him briefly to the bench. Pasadena took full advantage. Brandon Jolley hit one of two foul shots. The next time down the floor, Pasadena’s Perris Hick’s hit a deuce. Then after Bonita got two back, Efferson nailed a three-pointer and Jolley dropped in a pair of free throws, and Bonita was suddenly down 57-41.

Ball game!

Credit Pasadena for putting the clamps on Ko early.

“Everybody knows he’s our main ball handler, so they were all over him,” Eckler said.

It was simply Pasadena’s night: Too much defensive pressure leading to too many  steals and easy buckets. By the time, Bonita cracked the code, it was simply too late.

“Pasadena was great from the free throw line,” Eckler said. “They shot the ball really well. Every time I thought we made a run, they answered. They are very good.

“I wish we had the first five minutes back.”