South El Monte’s Enrique Duarte (2) scrambles for the loose ball with Gabrielino’s Eli Peters, left, and teammate Gary Hawkins in the first half of a prep basketball game at South El Monte High School in South El Monte, Calif., on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014. (Keith Birmingham/Pasadena Star-News)

By Stephen Ramirez
@SteveRRamirez on Twitter
SOUTH EL MONTE >>The race for the Mission Valley League boys basketball title is Gabrielino High School’s to lose.
Eli Peters scored a game-high 23 points and had eight rebounds and Gabrielino took over first place with a 58-43 victory over host South El Monte on Wednesday.
Grant Kirchhoff had 18 points and 12 rebounds and Bryan Phan had 13 points for Gabrielino, which improved to 17-3 overall and 5-0 in league play. South El Monte, getting 18 points from Eduardo Hernandez and 12 from Alex Ortiz, slipped to 10-5 and 4-1.

The key for Gabrielino on Wednesday, like it was in its 67-45 victory over El Monte last week, was the third quarter. Gabrielino was 10 of 15 from the floor during that stretch and opened the quarter with a 16-9 surge to go up 42-28 following three inside shots by Kirchhoff and a 10-footer by Peters.

Gabrielino coach John Carney: “It’s nice. We’ve talked before that its another step in the process, where we want to go and how we want to get there. But I was telling the guys, the second half of league is going to be tougher than the first half. We’re where we want to be, but it’s going to be harder than the fist half.”
Eli Peters: “We definitely got more intense (during the second half). We had that fire. We just kept rolling.”