By Pete Borello

Trailing by six points early in the fourth quarter, the Los Altos High boys basketball team turned up the heat defensively against visiting Mountain View Feb. 12.

The Spartans wilted under the full-court pressure, allowing the Eagles to rally for a 75-68 victory that guaranteed them at least a share of the SCVAL El Camino Division championship.

“We didn’t handle the pressure in the fourth quarter,” Mountain View coach Bob Heckmann said after watching his team get eliminated from title contention. “They came after us like junkyard dogs.”

Los Altos coach Paul Mansingh admitted the change in defensive strategy was a gamble, but the reward outweighed the risk.

“Sometimes pressure can lead to great things and sometimes it destroys you,” Mansingh said. “I’ve seen both.”

The coach’s biggest fear — the Spartans breaking the press for easy layups — never materialized. Instead, the Eagles coerced Mountain View into three turnovers (all in the backcourt) over a three-minute span and tied the game at 64 on Shawn Girouard’s twisting jumper with 3:28 to play.

After trading baskets with Mountain View, Los Altos went up 68-66 on a pair of free throws by Michael Sage. The Eagles never relinquished the lead, pushing it to six points when Steven Wong nailed a stop-and-pop jumper just inside the key with 53 seconds left.

Wong finished with a game-high 27 points, 14 of them coming in the final quarter.

“He took control out there,” Mansingh said of his star point guard. “He attacked the basket and made his free throws.”

Wong converted 10 foul shots in the fourth and finished 12 of 14 from the stripe. As a team, Los Altos drained 15 of its 18 free throws in the last period; the Spartans went 2 for 3.

With both teams pushing the ball throughout the game — rendering the shot clock almost useless — free throws were one of the few things that allowed the players to catch their breath.

Matt Ronconi set the tempo for Mountain View, though the high-scoring point guard often seemed out of rhythm. The senior did finish with 26 points, but forced several shots. Three of his misguided attempts fell short of the rim, drawing “Air ball!” chants from the Los Altos fans.

Things didn’t get any easier for Ronconi on defense. Wong scored most of his points by driving at his counterpart and also broke free under the basket to convert an alley-oop pass from Sage into a layin. The bucket gave Los Altos a 17-9 advantage midway through the opening quarter.

Mountain View trailed by five at quarter’s end, then went on an 18-13 run to knot the game at 35 by halftime. Ronconi rallied the Spartans, pouring in 10 points and registering an assist on a nice drive-and-dish to Brad Read in the low post.

Read and fellow forward Andrew Aitchison finished with 13 points each for Mountain View.

Los Altos also had two players other than its point guard reach double-digits: Sage (16 points) and Ian Sangster (12).

The 9-1 Eagles, who last captured a league title in 1975, entered this week needing to win one of its final two division games to claim the El Camino outright. Los Altos was scheduled to play at Santa Clara Tuesday and travels to Monta Vista Thursday for a 7 p.m. game.

Mountain View, which sunk to 6-4, is in a fight for second place.

The Spartans were slated to host Santa Clara last Friday and travel to Lynbrook Tuesday.

Pinewood gets pounded

Host Sacred Heart Prep pasted Pinewood 77-34 Feb. 10, dropping the Panther to 8-4 in the Private Schools Athletic League.