Mike SciaccaA second half surge Wednesday has...

Mike Sciacca

A second half surge Wednesday has carried the Laguna Beach High boys’

basketball team into the second-round of the CIF-Southern Section

Division IV-AA playoffs.

Trailing a small but scrappy Valley Christian team by two at the

half, the Breakers came alive and, led by the scoring and rebounding

of senior Ivan Kovacevic, pulled away to a 48-38 first-round victory

The win marked he second straight year that Laguna has advanced to

the second-round, and they scored a rare, first-round home game

victory, in the process.

“It wasn’t exactly the type of performance I had hoped for or

expected, however, we will play better on Friday,” Laguna coach Mark

Hill said. “There’s always improvement from the first playoff game to

the second.”

Last year, Laguna opened the postseason with a trip to Los Angeles

and won at Milken Community, then got a second-round home game

against Serra.

They were eliminated in that round by the Cavaliers, but get a

second chance tonight when they travel to play at Serra, the

division’s No. 2 seed.

Serra had a first-round bye Wednesday.

Valley Christian of Cerritos, the third-place team out of the

Alpha League, surprised Laguna by taking a 21-19 lead at the half.

But the Breakers, the No. 3 team out of the Pacific Coast League,

outscored the Crusaders, 18-5, in the third quarter, to forge a 37-26

lead.

Kovacevic scored 15 of his team-high 19 points in the second half.

He also had a season high 20 rebounds and added five blocks to his

performance.

Nikola Nicolic scored nine points and Mike Kote finished with

seven points and five assists.

Valley Christian finished its year 9-18.

Laguna is now 17-10 overall.

Kovacevic came into the game averaging 19.5 points and 11.5

rebounds per game.

He also had 78 blocks during the regular season.

Nicolic had an 11.3 points per game average during the regular

season.

During Tuesday’s Pacific Coast League meeting, league coaches

named Kovacevic co-MVP of the league, Hill said.

Kovacevic shares the honor with senior Brett Sherry of league

champion Tesoro.

Nicolic was named first team all-league.

“I think it’s a well-deserved honor for both players and in Ivan’s

case, he’s been the most dominant player in our league this year,”

Hill said.