PHOTOS: Tustin holds off late charge by Dana Hills to win tourney title

Tustin players and coaches celebrate after winning the Luis Macias Tournament title. (Photos: Fernando M. Donado and team shot, Tim Burt).

Tustin’s boys basketball team survived a late run by Dana Hills to capture a 49-46 victory over Dana Hills Saturday afternoon in the championship game of the Luis Macias Tournament at Santa Ana High School.

The Tillers were led by junior guard Eli Nyeazi, who scored 13 points and was named to the all-tournament team. Tustin (4-0) also got a strong effort from senior forward Julian Flores, who had 12 points and Pablo Magallanes who scored 10 points.

To see the slide show, click on the first photo:

Dana Hills (3-1) was led by Griffin Haugh, who scored 19 points and was named to the all-tournament team. Adam Pellini added 10 points for the Dolphins.

“Obivously, we felt like we got decent shots in the first half and struggled to finish a couple easy shots and struggled at the foul line,” said Tustin Coach Ringo Bossenmeyer. “But hopefully your defense keeps you in when you’re struggling like that and I thought we executed a lot better offensively and did a much better job of taking care of the ball in the second half and we played Tustin basketball for those 16 minutes but obviously these are great games for us.

“Two years ago, it was a Tustin-Dana Hills final in that year as well and they got us by one. It was a rematch and a fun one. It’s always a war against those guys, they’re well coached and they can shoot it.”

Tustin held a 20-19 lead at halftime but outscored Dana Hills 18-11 in the third quarter to extend the margin going in the final stanza.

The Dolphins closed the gap to 49-46 on a 3-point basket by Pellini with 42 seconds remaining. Tustin was unable to increase its lead the next trip down and Dana Hills got the ball back with 4.9 seconds remaining.

A 3-pointer by Haugh fell off the rim and a follow-up putback by a teammate was also off as time expired.

“We were up by eight going to the foul line to go up by more and couldn’t knock down the foul shots and they hit a three and once you get to a five point, two-possession game it’s anybody’s game with three minutes left, ” Bossenmeyer said.

Bossenmeyer said it’s always special to a compete for a tournament title no matter what level.

“We didn’t want to regret not getting this done based on effort or focus and if it didn’t go our way, so be it,” he said. “We wanted to make sure we left it out on the court for 32 minutes and I thought both teams did that.”

SATURDAY SCORES

Bolsa Grande 58, Godinez 50

Westminster 70, La Quinta 58

Santa Ana 59, Santa Ana Valley 43

Calvary Chapel 62, El Modena 40 (third place)

Tustin 49, Dana Hills 46 (championship)

ALL-TOURNAMENT

Deaven Perez, Santa Ana

Kyle Halk, Westminster

Viggo Nguyen, La Quinta

Jared Phan, Bolsa Grande

Damian Guzman, Godinez

Anthony Montiel, Santa Ana Valley

Ethan Hanning, Calvary Chapel

Drew Rodriguez, El Modena

Griffin Haugh, Dana Hills

El Nyeazi, Tustin

—-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com