Laguna Beach gets past short-handed Beckman in opening round of Tustin Classic

Jackson Sirianni of Laguna Beach looks to pass the ball in Monday’s Tustin Classic against Beckman. (Photo Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

Laguna Beach’s boys basketball team jumped out to a 10-point lead after one quarter and went on to capture a 67-54 victory over Beckman in the first round of the Tustin Classic Monday afternoon at Tustin.

Beckman had only seven players suited up as nine players had to sit out due to COVID protocol, according to Patriot Coach John Goins. The players will miss the rest of the tournament, he said.

Laguna Beach (8-5) was led by seniors Jackson Sirianni, who scored 28 points and Kai Gillies, who had 21 points and five 3-pointers.

Sam Evans, one of the normal Beckman starters, led the Patriots with 15 points.Abhi Acharya had 10 points and Raaidh Afaz eight points for Beckman (6-10).

Sirianni scored 18 of the Breakers 25 points in the first quarter.

Laguna Beach extended its lead to 43-27 at halftime and was in control the rest of the way.

“It looked like we were kind of in vacation mode,” said Laguna Beach Coach Bret Fleming. “The defensive fundamentals weren’t real good for us. Some of our zone concepts weren’t real good but I thought Jackson Sirianni played real well and Kai Gillies knocked down some three’s and kind of got his shot back, so those were positives for us.”

Goins, the Beckman coach, saw some positives as well from an inexperienced group.

“We struggled defensively at the beginning, if we didn’t that’s a much closer ball game,” Goins said. “A lot of guys playing that don’t play that many minutes, they just had to kind of had to find their footing. I thought we actually played a good third quarter. I think we won the third quarter (15-13) and the fourth quarter was about even.

“That was probably about as good as I could have hoped other than us coming out hitting a ton of shots and having a really lucky night.”

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–Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone