MISSION VIEJO — After three quarters, it seemed like La Serna’s girls basketball team had found its rhythm and was setting itself up for a thrilling finish against Trabuco Hills in the first round of the CIF-SS playoffs.
Trabuco Hills quickly made sure a close finish wouldn’t take place.
The Mustangs outscored La Serna 28-6 in the fourth quarter to beat the Lancers 70-46 in the Division 3 playoff game Thursday night at Trabuco Hills High.
La Serna (20-9) trailed by 11 at halftime but went on a big run in the third quarter to cut Trabuco Hills’ lead to two points.
Trabuco Hills (22-4) went on a 16-2 run to open the fourth quarter and forced five turnovers during that span.
“Shots just started to fall. Our team can shoot and when the shots start falling it’s a completely different game,” Trabuco Hills coach Calvin Mackey said. “I didn’t think we played great defense the first three quarters. We had multiple efforts, got more 50/50 balls, stuff like that.”
Elizabeth Tapper led Trabuco Hills with 27 points. The sophomore also had five assists and three steals which led to layups for her.
“She’s a gem,” Mackey said of Tapper. “When her shot gets falling, she has the green light, and when she gets driving downhill, it’s all money from there.”
Tapper had 11 of her points in the fourth quarter with two assists and two steals. Madeline Hales and Melika Gharavi made big 3-pointers for the Mustangs during the fourth quarter run and Kelsie Wong had four points with two steals.
Trabuco Hills built its 11-point lead in the first half by forcing 12 turnovers from La Serna and getting some contributions from its bench. Freshman Gretchen Grant had four points with six offensive rebounds in the first half off the bench for the Mustangs.
La Serna corrected its turnover mistakes in the third quarter and only had one turnover compared to five for Trabuco Hills. Hailey Jaquez-Aguayo had eight points in La Serna’s third-quarter comeback and Ellie Martinez had four points with two steals.
“Every team that’s a good team is going to have a run in them,” Mackey said. “That’s a good team (La Serna) and I’m not taking anything away from them, but a lot of it was our mistakes, not anything they did.”
Jaquez-Aguayo led La Serna with 18 points and made three 3-pointers. Danae Covarrubias had nine points for the Lancers and Elliana Carrillo had a game-high nine rebounds.
Wong had 12 points for Trabuco Hills and Ady Fujimoto added eight. Sam Rynders had six of her seven rebounds in the second half and added four points.
La Serna won the Del Rey League this season and entered Thursday with a 10-game winning streak.
Trabuco Hills won the Sea View League and has won 10 of its last 11 games.
The Mustangs will play Segerstrom on the road Saturday in the second round.