The Mission Viejo Diablos struggled with assists on Friday (the Dana Hills Dolphins had 18 more) and sadly the final score reflected it. Mission Viejo took a hard 71-52 fall against Dana Hills. While losing is never fun, Mission Viejo can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 546th, while Dana Hills is ranked 36th).
Despite the loss, Mission Viejo still got an impressive performance from Porter Baldwin, who dropped a double-double on 19 points and 15 rebounds.
Dana Hills' success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Ryan Torab led the charge by scoring 18 points along with five assists and two steals. Torab has been hot recently, having posted two or more steals the last three times he's played. Collin Haugh was another key contributor, scoring 20 points along with two steals.
Mission Viejo bumped their record down to 8-13 with that loss, which was their third straight at home. As for Dana Hills, the win (which was their ninth in a row) raised their record to 17-4.
Mission Viejo will head out on the road to challenge Aliso Niguel at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Aliso Niguel and Mission Viejo are at an even 5-5 over their past ten head-to-heads. As for Dana Hills, they will be playing in front of their home fans against El Toro at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Hopefully El Toro focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up ten on Friday.
