Galvanoni Has Cougars Feeling Better and Better

Dan Galvanoni hasn’t had the kind of season he was hoping for. Until now.

After never fully recovering from the mononucleosis he had last summer, he has battled strep throat, which forced him to miss two games.

If that wasn’t enough, in the first game of the season, Galvanoni went up for a jump shot, was fouled, and when he came down the second finger on his shooting hand was going one way and his knuckle was going the other.

“It hasn’t been the kind of season I was looking forward to,” said Galvanoni, a senior guard who plays with his broken finger taped.

He went a long way toward erasing the unpleasant memories Friday night at Capistrano Valley, scoring 27 points, handing out six assists and playing tough man-to-man defense to lead the No. 8 Cougars to a 64-58 victory over No. 7 San Clemente in a South Coast League game.

The victory was the 13th in the last 15 games for the Cougars (13-5, 3-0), who started the season 0-3. Senior forward Austin Moherman had 15 points and junior center Josh Garrett scored 12 and added six rebounds. Sophomore guard Mike Stowell had eight rebounds.

Semaj Johnson scored 18 points and had 11 rebounds for San Clemente, which fell to 15-3, 2-1. Triton guard Oscar Monticinos scored 17 points and forward Jan Tatala scored 12 points and had nine rebounds.

Galvanoni, who scored 33 points in a victory over Esperanza this season, made 10 of 17 shots from the field, six of them three-pointers. He had four three-pointers in the first half, as Capistrano Valley took a lead that grew to as many as 14 points in the second quarter.

He also did a good job guarding San Clemente guard Rick Saul. Saul made two of nine field goal tries and finished with nine points and six rebounds.

The Tritons made only 20 of 57 shots. They cut the Cougar lead to 46-44 on a driving basket by Johnson with 5 minutes 42 seconds left in the game, but then Galvanoni made one of two free throws, a three-pointer and fed Moherman for a lay-in off an inbounds pass. It was part of a 10-0 run that Galvanoni finished with a jumper with 2:37 left.

In other South Coast League games:

Mission Viejo 51, Dana Hills 47--Commander King scored 15 points and Gabe Burt added 14 for visiting Mission Viejo (7-8, 1-2), which made only five of 15 free throws in the fourth quarter and almost squandered a 10-point lead.

Mater Dei 98, Trabuco Hills 63--Mike Vukovich had 22 points and nine rebounds and Kevin Augustine had 20 points and 11 assists for the visiting Monarchs (16-2, 3-0).