Newport Harbor survives late Tustin rally and captures Euclid Extravaganza title

Newport Harbor Sailors after winning the Euclid Extravaganza. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

Newport Harbor High School’s boys basketball team survived Tustin’s furious rally in the final seconds and held on for a 61-60 victory over the Tillers in the championship game of the Euclid Extravaganza Saturday night at Garden Grove.

It marked the second consecutive Euclid Extravaganza title for Newport Harbor.

Senior guard Jack Berry, who was named the tournament’s most outstanding player, led the Sailors (6-2) with 23 points. Senior forward Nash McKown, who was solid all four games during the week, earned all-tournament honors. Gavin Guy had nine points and Nolan Payne eight points for the Sailors.

To see additional photos, click on the first picture:

Jack Berry of Newport Harbor, the tournament MVP.

Players from Newport Harbor and Tustin prepare for Saturday's game.

Newport Harbor Coach Robert Torribio talks to his players during a timeout.

Tustin Coach Ringo Bossenmeyer applauds the effort of his team after the game.

Tustin's Ethan Contreras accepts the runner-up trophy from Garden Grove Coach Andrew Scimneca, the tourney director.

“Playing against the Tillers, they’re always well coached, they’re always going to run their stuff and play great defense,” said Newport Harbor Coach Robert Torribio. “You just have to stay after it and not let their physicality bother you. It got to us a little bit to start the game, sometimes you’re not used to playing against a team that is that talented and well coached.

“I thought our guys did a great job of competing the whole way and when the ball goes in, everything goes a little bit easier.”

The last 10 seconds were wild. Newport Harbor held a 61-58 lead, but Tustin got a steal and Brannon Hampton scored a basket to cut the lead to 61-60 with 1.2 seconds remaining.

The Tillers got the ball back when the Newport Harbor inbounds pass hit the backboard. But Tustin was unable to convert a possible close-range game-winner under heavy defensive pressure as time ran out.

Tustin (8-2) got outstanding efforts from Ethan Contreras, who scored 21 points and Yuri Klines, who had 13 points.

The teams were tied 30-30 at halftime before Tustin went on an 8-0 run at the start of the third quarter to take the lead.

Berry kept his team close scoring seven points. However, Tustin held a 3-point lead going into the fourth quarter. Newport Harbor turned up the defensive intensity and moved ahead 51-45 on a dunk by Berry with 4:45 remaining, eventually surviving the Tillers late comeback.

“It feels great, it’s a whole new team, whole new starters, it feels great to go 4-0 in this tournament against a really scrappy Tustin team,” Berry said. “We knew what we were getting ourselves into, we knew they were going to be a competitive team. I just tried to tell my guys to keep going because I knew we had it in us to win.

“We started to figure it out after the first quarter, we started hitting shots, we didn’t have a huge plan going into it and then we started to figure out three (Contreras) was their guy and what to do on offense and we just beat them. We went on a few big runs and they couldn’t stop us.”

Coach Ringo Bossenmeyer’s Tustin team was competing in a tournament final for the second week in a row after losing to Irvine last week in the finals of the Rancho Alamitos Tournament.

“It was an exciting and extremely competitive game between two solid teams,” Bossenmeyer said. “Both squads showed their resiliency coming back from significant deficits. Even though we came up just short tonight, hopefully the experience and lessons learned will benefit us in January and February. Congratulations to Newport Harbor on their tournament championship.”

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