SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO — The San Juan Hills and Trabuco Hills girls basketball teams no longer play in the same league, but the result of Friday’s game between the two teams was a familiar one.
San Juan Hills cruised to a 58-47 win over Trabuco Hills in a nonleague game at San Juan Hills High.
The teams were South Coast League foes the past three seasons, but Trabuco Hills now plays in the Sea View League. San Juan Hills (10-4) has won 11 consecutive games against the Mustangs dating back to 2018.
San Juan Hills shined defensively and held Trabuco Hills (10-2) to its lowest scoring total since its season-opening loss to Aliso Niguel. The Stallions forced 19 turnovers and its smothering wing defense caused Trabuco Hills to shoot just 22 percent from 3-point range.
“We came in with an attitude that we wanted to be aggressive on the defensive end,” San Juan Hills coach Jay Williams said. “We wanted the most deflections we’ve had, we wanted to get steals and get out in transition. We know we are our best when we get out in transition.”
San Juan Hills blew the game open in the third quarter when they followed Williams’ instructions and got some transition points. Adelyn Boberg scored 12 of her 24 points in the third quarter and had three steals. Ten of Boberg’s 12 points in the frame were fast break points.
“I didn’t really start off as well as I wanted but I think I gained more confidence as the game went on,” Boberg said. “I got more steals and that led to more baskets.”
San Juan Hills led 32-19 at halftime and led by 20 points with four minutes remaining in the game.
A key factor in San Juan Hills’ success was its dominance on the offensive glass. Sixteen of San Juan Hills’ 44 rebounds were offensive rebounds, and they led to a lot of second-chance points.
Ellasyn Hunter led the Stallions with 16 rebounds, eight of them on the offensive end. Katie Schafer added nine rebounds.
“Our goal tonight was energy and effort,” Williams said. “We only had five offensive rebounds in our last game. Ellasyn is a constant energy machine out there for us. We told her she can single-handedly get more than five offensive rebounds.”
Neither team shot the ball well which led to the high rebounding numbers. Trabuco Hills made just six of 27 3-pointers and San Juan Hills made three of 20 3-pointers (15 percent).
Sam Rynders led Trabuco Hills with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Elizabeth Tapper had 11 points and Kelsie Wong added nine.
Tatum Davis had 11 points for San Juan Hills and Olivia Morgan added five rebounds with two blocks.
Trabuco Hills had a 10-game winning streak entering Friday. The Mustangs are ranked No. 22 in the Register’s top 25 poll and San Juan Hills is ranked No. 13.
San Juan Hills had entered Friday’s game with a two-game losing streak, but had a week layoff between games.
“It was finals week so we were limited a bit, but it was good for them to step away for a bit,” Williams said. “We played 13 games in the first three weeks so there’s not a lot of practice time. To be able to get into the gym, reset and calm our minds was instrumental for us.”
“I’m excited for where we are right now. We are getting to where we need to get to for us to compete for a league championship, which is our goal every year.”
San Juan Hills plays Westview of San Diego on Saturday afternoon.