Portola gets tough on defense and rallies for PCL tournament victory over Northwood

Portola Coach Brian Smith talks to his players during a timeout Wednesday. (Photo Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

Portola High School’s basketball team stormed back with a strong third quarter and went on to defeat Northwood 79-74 in the opening round of the Pacific Coast League Tournament at Portola.

The tournament is being used to determine the final standings in the league.

Northwood had a strong first half moving out to a 10-point lead which was trimmed to 38-35 at halftime. Portola’s Jayden Villanueva hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to trim the Timberwolves’ big lead to three.

Then in the third quarter, Portola outscored Northwood 23-15 to turn the table.

Colin Huang led Portola (14-11, 3-4) with 18 points. Villanueva had 15 and Emmett Lo and Ryan Chu 10 points each. Zaid Yunis had 29 points and seven 3-pointers, Aditya Sheth had 13 points and Justin Liu 11 points for Northwood (13-12, 4-3).

“We just needed to tighten up our defense, they were shooting the ball so well in the first half and I don’t think we were rotating very well in our man,” said Portola Coach Brian Smith. “We got caught up on some screens and weren’t able to switch. But they do such a good job of getting down hill and finding the open guy and when they’re knocking shots down, obviously they’re a great team.

“It was a hard fought game, I was proud of our guys for actually changing gears a little and playing a little tougher than we have in the last few games. We haven’t been able to close out games in the last few games so it was nice to get a win tonight.”

Portola led 58-53 going into the final quarter and moved out to a 10-point lead. However, Northwood cut the lead to 72-69 when Yunis made a 3-pointer and sank a free throw with 2:54 remaining.

The Bulldogs jumped to a seven point lead but Yunis hit one more three-pointer with 17 seconds left to cut the lead to four but that was as close as the Timberwolves could get.

Huynh helped Portola finish strong, scoring 10 points and sinking six free throws in the final quarter.

“We played a scrappy team, we’ve been in a slump a little,” Huang said. “So it was great to get a good win playing hard. Our main adjustment was all mental and playing sound defense. It was whoever wanted it more in the second half. I think it’s (the tournament) is pretty cool because any team can win even if they had a bad start to their league.”

Northwood Coach Christian Manalo said his team didn’t defend well enough to win the game.

“We were up 10 and we had a run going into half and we talk about finishing quarters and halves strong and that didn’t happen today and it kind of led to a run that led into the second half,” Manalo said. “I think we played well, we played tough and did exactly what we wanted. We just didn’t get stops. It’s a good experience, but I think we let one slip away here.”

Manalo was pleased with Yunis’ effort.

“He’s been one of our solid guys,” Manalo said. “He was in attack mode and he doesn’t come out much. He hits shots, he gets to the paint, he does a lot for us but it wasn’t enough for us and we didn’t enough contributions from anywhere else.”

Portola will face Sage Hill Thursday at 6 p.m. in the winner’s bracket while Northwood faces University at 4:30 p.m. in the consolation bracket.

The tournament wraps up on Friday with the championship game at 7:30 p.m.

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Games in the PCL tournament do not count on the teams overall or league record, coaches confirmed.

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