RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA — The Tesoro girls basketball team kept its Sea View League championship hopes alive by beating El Toro 36-34 on Thursday at Tesoro High.
Tesoro (16-12, 5-2) won both of its league games against El Toro (18-8, 4-2) this season and both teams are one game behind first-place Trabuco Hills, which is 6-1 in league play.
El Toro and Trabuco Hills play each other Saturday and if El Toro wins, a three-way tie for the league championship is likely.
Tesoro won the CIF-SS Division 4AA championship last season but has not won a league championship since 2016.
“It’s tough coaching against the coaches in this league,” Tesoro coach Ra Reyes said. “On any given night, any team can go off. It’s all about who hits the crucial shots in the fourth quarter.”
Tesoro led by 10 points in the second half but had to hold off a late rally by El Toro to win.
The Titans led 36-29 with 38 seconds remaining in the game and El Toro forced two turnovers on inbound plays which cut the lead to two points.
The Titans missed both free throws with seven seconds remaining in the game, but an offensive rebound by Charlotte Marvin sealed the win for Tesoro.
Marvin had already been in Tesoro’s record books for rebounding, but further etched her name in Tesoro history with her performance Thursday. The senior had a school-record 26 rebounds, 13 of them being offensive rebounds.
“She picked the right time to have a great game,” Reyes said of Marvin. “All year long she has done a lot of the hard work for us. She really helped us tonight.”
“We really wanted that second win against El Toro,” Marvin said. “We’ve struggled against them all four years I’ve been here so this is a big win.”
Marvin set four school records for rebounding last season including most rebounds in a single season with 322. Her previous career-high in a game was 21 rebounds.
Tesoro flipped the game in the third quarter when it outscored El Toro 14-3. The Titans scored the first 10 points of the quarter and kept El Toro off the scoreboard for the first five minutes.
“They started to play for each other, get the extra pass and the extra rebound,” Reyes said. “Help defense was the key tonight. I thought we were really good in the paint and were very disciplined.”
Sammie Burkett, who had a team-high 11 points for Tesoro, made two consecutive 3-pointers in the third quarter to give Tesoro the lead. Kamea Wong and Caitlyn Tse each scored during the 10-0 run as well.
Lenzy Turner led El Toro with 20 points including 11 in the first quarter. Mia Cubacub had a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
El Toro most recently won a league championship in 2023. The Chargers beat its opponent Saturday, Trabuco Hills, 46-40 in the first league game between the two teams.
“We have to learn from the lack of execution tonight and put it behind us,” El Toro coach Patrick Nunez said. “I’m proud of the way the girls finished tonight.”
Tesoro wraps its regular season against Mission Viejo on Tuesday. The Titans beat Mission Viejo 51-29 in their first matchup.