OCEANSIDE -- Down by 10 points midway through the first quarter, El Camino High big man Luke Evans said he wasn't concerned.
"I didn't like it," Evans said. "Basketball is four quarters, so we had time."
The Wildcats quickly erased the deficit and led by as many as seven in the fourth quarter before hanging on through the frantic final minutes to upset Etiwanda 63-60 on Monday night in a packed El Camino gym in the opening round CIF State Division I Southern California Regionals.
The win over Etiwanda (25-6), ranked No. 6 in the state by Cal-Hi Sports, is the 16th in a row and 23rd in the last 24 games for El Camino (31-3).
The reward for the Wildcats is a trip Tuesday night to L.A. Westchester (31-2), ranked No. 2 in the state.
"Anytime you beat a good team in a state playoff it's a good thing," said Evans, who finished with a game-high 18 points, grabbed eight rebounds and blocked two shots. "Eitwanda is a good team, but you have to play the best to prove you belong with the best.
"I think this win proves San Diego teams can play, too."
The Wildcats fell behind 12-2 to start the game, but went on a 12-2 run to tie the score at the end of the first quarter.
El Camino led 31-28 at the half when Peter Foster buried a 3-pointer in the dying seconds.
In a game that was tied eight times and saw the lead change hands 12 times, El Camino forged the biggest lead of the game at 58-51 with 3 minutes, 12 seconds to play on a pair of Steven Aldridge free throws.
Eitwanda, however, cut the deficit to 61-60 with 25 seconds remaining.
But a Foster free throw with 24 seconds, a critical traveling call on Eitwanda in a scramble under the basket and a free throw by Evans with nine seconds, gave the Wildcats a three-point advantage.
Etiwanda tried to hurry the ball into the front court, but the best the Eagles could do was a hurried 3-point attempt at the buzzer by Jordan Daniels that wasn't close.
"Everyone stepped up tonight," said El Camino coach Ray Johnson. "Luke played great, did a great job on their big man (6-foot-9 Perris Blackwell).
"We didn't have a lot of time to prepare for this game, but it was obvious the kids wanted to keep playing."
Alan Cox was huge for El Camino early, scoring 11 of his 16 points in the first half.
Aldridge was big late, scoring 12 of his 14 points in the second half, 10 in the fourth quarter. He was 9-for-19 from the free-throw line in the game. El Camino was 23-of-29 from the free-throw line in the game while Eitwanda was 5-for-8.
"The key for us was defense," Aldridge said. "Good Lord, if we hadn't played great defense, who knows what might have happened.
"This was a big game, but we tried to approach it like it was just another game -- play hard.
"The coaches did a great job, called some great plays so we got some good things going.
"This says a lot for El Camino basketball, and maybe helps put San Diego basketball back on the map."
Staff writer John Maffei can be reached at (760) 740-3547 or jmaffei@nctimes.com.
