Julien Franklin of Villa Park is guarded by Newport Harbor’s Dayne Chalmers Friday night.
Villa Park’s boys basketball team, after a slow start, got going in the second quarter and fought off a determined Newport Harbor team to win 61-54 in the semifinals of the Grizzly Invitational at Godinez.
Villa Park (9-0) moves on to the championship game Saturday at 7:45 p.m. against Yorba Linda at Godinez.
“It was a little bit of a slow start for us but a lot of that is due to Newport Harbor,” said Villa Park Coach Kevin Reynolds. “They’re a good team, they’re well coached, they had us well scouted and they did a very nice job and they got good players.
“We felt very fortunate to be tied at halftime and we thought we just need to play like we play and I felt in the second half we got going a little bit in the third quarter. Cal Whitney had eight in that quarter and that really got us going and Julien (Franklin) is really a guy who can score, not whenever he wants, but he’s pretty good.”
Franklin, who is bound for Oregon State, led the Spartans with 23 points and 17 rebounds/Â Franklin scored 38 points in the first game in the tournament, 18 in the second game and 36 points Thursday night.
“I think he’s as good as anybody in Orange County,” Reynolds said. “You would have to show me a guy who’s better.”
Charleston Moore added 13 points and Riley Schroeder had 9 points and 9 rebounds for Villa Park, ranked fifth in this week’s Orange County Register county poll.
Sam Barela scored 21 points and Will Harvey and Dayne Chalmers had 11 points each for Newport Harbor (4-1).
Newport Harbor held an 8-3 lead after one quarter before Villa Park, ranked No. 5 in the county by the Orange County Register, got going, outscoring the Sailors 21-16 in the second quarter to tie the game.
Villa Park outscored Newport Harbor 21-12 in the third quarter to take the lead heading into the final stanza.
Newport Harbor made one last run, cutting the Villa Park lead to 48-43 with 5:48 left on a 3-pointer by Harvey. But Villa Park was able to increase the lead to 11 points shortly after that.
“We like to compete,” said Newport Harbor Coach Robert Torribio. “To beat a very good team like that you got to make some shots and make those plays and those 50-50 balls. It would have been nice to get some of those loose balls in the first half. The second half, it seemed like they got every 50-50 ball and then they made shots and they’re really talented.
“We defend and play really hard and they’re very well coached obviously and very good, but I think our defensive effort throughout the entire game was a great job.”
Newport Harbor wraps up the tournament Saturday facing Capistrano Valley Christian in the third place game at 6:15 p.m. at Godinez.
FULL SCHEDULE FOR SATURDAY’S GRIZZLY INVITATIONAL
YORBA LINDA WINS AND MOVES ON TO FACE VILLA PARK
-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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