PHOTOS: First-place Irvine captures decisive victory over Sage Hill in PCL showdown

Irvine players and coaches after Friday’s PCL win over Sage Hill. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

Irvine High School’s boys basketball team took another big step toward winning the first league title for the program since 1991, defeating Sage Hill 66-37 Friday night in a showdown of the top two teams in the Pacific Coast League.

Both teams came in with undefeated league records, but Irvine (22-2, 6-0) took charge in the first half, racing to a 30-10 lead and never looked back to register its 15th consecutive victory, much to the delight of the hometown Irvine fans.

The Vaqueros have one more regular season league game at home next Tuesday vs. St. Margaret’s. The Vaqueros will be the top-seeded team for the annual PCL tournament that begins next week at Portola and determines the league champion.

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Irvine had a balanced scoring attack led by standout forward-center Cooper Stearns, who poured in 26 points and grabbed 15 rebounds. His younger brother Holden Stearns added 15 points, Jalem Yim had 12 points and Taewon Kim nine points.

Irvine sank five 3-pointers in the first half, three by Yim, to take the big lead at halftime. Irvine kept the pressure on moving out to a 51-25 lead after three quarters.

Sage Hills (12-7, 5-1) was led by Jackson Cryst and Tre Cradle who had eight points each and Charlie Gomez, who had seven points.

Irvine Coach Harry Meussner said the Vaqueros were coming off an outstanding week of practice and it carried over into Friday’s game.

“We knew what we needed to do and the boys executed the game plan perfectly,” Meussner said. “I was just so proud of them. There’s a reason I had five timeout in my hip pocket in the fourth quarter. It’s because the boys were coaching themselves, they knew where they needed to be and really just minimal errors and an aggressive mindset from the beginning, shooting the ball, attacking the basket, being calm under Sage’s pressure defense.

“I thought that Jalen and Holden both came out really aggressive, Taewon Kim had an excellent week of preparation, he started at Laguna Beach shooting very efficiently and just rolled into this game with a lot of confidence and Ali Dal attacking the basket and finding his teammates. No one was afraid of the moment today, everyone was prepared, everyone knew their assignments.

“This one was the big one for us because it clinched first place going into the tournament.”

While his teammates did a good part of the scoring in the first half, Cooper Stearns played a solid all-around game and finished with 17 points in the second half.

“This game was a huge game,” Cooper Stearns said. “It was for first place in the regular season for the tournament and coming into this game, we knew Sage Hill was also a great team because they’re undefeated, they have a lot of great players and we knew it was going to be a tough test and a Friday at home, we really wanted to win this game to be first in the league tournament.

“Credit to Sage, they’re a great team, we were talking about being intense, we came out of the game hot and never looked back. I credit all of my teammates, they opened the floor so much, everyone shot the ball so well and everyone knew it was a big game and everybody stepped up, every single player on the team.”

Cooper Stearns was proud of the effort of all of his teammates, including Yim, Kim and his younger brother Holden.

“I thought it was a really hard fought victory,” Holden Stearns said. “I think all of us knew what we had to do coming into this game. We all want to be in first place, a lot was on the line in this game, I don’t think we’ve every beaten Sage in the time Coach Meussner has been here so we just wanted to do the best we could.

“At halftime, we were up by a fair amount, we just (put) the foot on the gas and never looked back and kept going.”

Holden Stearns, a sophomore is also enjoying playing with his younger brother, who has committed to play golf at Stanford University.

“It’s really special, because there are a lot of things that he and I know how to do that I don’t know how to do with my friends, he’s very talented and very smart and he controls the game with or without the ball and it’s a blessing to play with him, he’s a great teammate and a great player,” he said.

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