Mission Viejo boys basketball team dominates in 55-26 victory over Beckman at North-South Challenge

Jake Connerty of Mission Viejo is guarded by Beckman’s Tommy Feldman during Saturday’s game.

Mission Viejo ‘s boys basketball team started fast and never let up Saturday night against Beckman in the North-South Challenge at Tesoro.

The Diablos took control early with an 18-7 lead after one quarter and went on to capture a 55-26 victory over the Patriots.

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

Mission Viejo Coach Troy Roelen meets with his playes after a win over Beckman.

Rey Cabiling of Mission Viejo was the MVP.

Beckman Coach John Goins looks on during the North-South Challenge.

Mission Viejo (12-2) was led by junior Rey Cabiling, who scored 12 points and was named the game’s most valuable player.

“I thought defensively we played really, really hard,” said Mission Viejo Coach Troy Roelen. “We did a really good job on number 11 (Dyan Thoerner) in the first half and tried to limit his touches and I think we shared the ball on offense and when we share the ball on offense we have a lot of capable bodies who can do good things.

“Rey did a good job getting to the foul line and getting some easy baskets.”

Mission Viejo led 29-9 at halftime and was in control the rest of the way.

Thoerner led Beckman (10-4) with 16 points, but he was held to four points in the first half. After scoring five points, he became Beckman’s all-time career scoring leader, breaking the previous record held by Michael Yee.

Jake Connerty, the transfer from Crean Lutheran, added 10 points and Griffin Higgins had nine points for Mission Viejo.

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