CIF-SOUTHERN SECTION BOYS BASKETBALL PLAYOFFS

Fulton, Wright propel Cerritos into unchartered territory, Dons blast South Torrance
By Loren Kopff

For a change, the Cerritos boys basketball team won’t be saddled with another first round loss in the California Interscholastic Federation-Southern Section playoffs. For the first time since 1997, the Dons will be playing a second round contest.
• Junior Terrence Fulton scored a game-high 25 points and grabbed 11 rebounds while senior Aaron Wright added 20 points and 13 boards as the Dons cruised to a 78-59 victory over visiting South Torrance this past Wednesday in a Division III-A first round game. The ninth ranked Dons (16-12) will visit eighth ranked Calabasas tonight. The Coyotes knocked off Diamond Ranch 82-52 this past Wednesday.
• “Even through the end of the game when we had a 20-point lead in the fourth quarter, I felt like it was a five-point lead just because of some of the stuff we had been through this year and also over the past 14 years,” said Cerritos head coach Jonathan Watanabe. “To move past the first round feels pretty good.”
• With the Spartans up 8-7 midway through the first quarter, the Dons scored the next seven points to take the lead for good. Fulton was pacing the team as he scored nine points in the opening stanza which ended with the hosts up 18-15. Cerritos began to pull away in the second quarter, outscoring the at-large team from the Pioneer League 17-10. Of the 27 shots Cerritos attempted in the first half, 15 of them were from three-point territory.
• But the dagger in the heart came early in the third quarter when the Dons went on an 11-0 run to lead 48-30 with 3:32 left in the stanza following a three-pointer from Fulton. He would score 11 points and have six rebounds in the quarter. Wright scored seven points, pulled down four boards and had two assists in the quarter as well.
• “I think the biggest this was he played defense,” Watanabe said of Fulton. “At the end of the game, we were giving up some easy buckets and it didn’t help. But the fact that he said he was going to play some defense and grab some rebounds helped a lot.”
• The lead would grow to as many as 28 points late in the fourth quarter before Watanabe put in his least played reserves plus two more who were called up from the junior varsity squad. Senior Bryan Williams added 16 points and six rebounds as Cerritos shot 43 percent from the field and took 28 shots from downtown.
• In 1997, Cerritos defeated Edison in the first round before falling to Glendora in the next round. It also advanced to the second round in 1995 and 1991.
• “This is one of the biggest [wins],” Watanabe said. “Even some of the Gahr games…those are nice rivalry games but as far as having meaning and significance, this has got to be the most significant win, at least over the past 10 years as a coach for me. We went through the season with nine guys and this team just has great chemistry.”