Beckman boys basketball team celebrates share of first league title and looks to win outright crown Thursday in showdown vs. Northwood

Beckman’s seniors were honored Tuesday before the PCL game vs. Uni.

It was quite a night for Beckman High’s boys basketball team.

The Patriots went into Tuesday’s game against University sharing the Pacific Coast League lead with Northwood with one game left Thursday between Beckman and Northwood.

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

The Patriots did their part to stay in first place, defeating University 81-58 on senior night at Beckman. (Please click here for details of that game).

But at Irvine, Irvine pulled off an upset over Northwood, winning 47-41 in double overtime. The Vaqueros (14-13, 4-5) kept their CIF playoffs alive moving into a three-way tie with Beckman and Portola for third place. Northwood (13-13, 6-3) dropped into second place.

VIDEO COURTESY JONATHAN KHAMIS

So that meant that Beckman (18-8, 7-2) was able to celebrate a share of its first boys league basketball title in school history.

It has been a process for Beckman to reach the top.

“This is my 11th season as a varsity coach at Beckman, third as head coach,” Beckman Coach John Goins said Wednesday.

“It wasn’t until my eighth season that we finally had a record over .500, so it has been a long process of building a program at a new school where there was no culture or tradition.

“To me, this league championship is the culmination of all those years of work by the past players and coaches who laid the foundation along with this year’s group who took it upon themselves to claim that it was now their time to take us to the next step.”

On Tuesday, Goins said he was aware that Irvine was giving Northwood a game and that an upset was possible.

“Our athletic trainer was texting with the Irvine athletic trainer, updating each other on the scores of the games,” he said. “At halftime he told me that Northwood was down a few points, and I told him to keep getting updates. I wasn’t too concerned at the time because we were in the middle of our own game and that deserved my full attention, but once we got down under four minutes and still had a 30 point lead, I made eye contact with the trainer and he told me that it was still a close game and Irvine was up.

“After our game I kept all of the players in the locker room while waiting for the update. I wanted them to go home that night knowing the exact situation, so they just sat there for 20 minutes waiting for me. When I heard that Northwood had lost, I walked into the locker room with a straight face and told them ‘OK, here is the situation…you’re league champions.’

“The room went nuts and I remember seeing Tommy Feldman look at Dylan Thoerner and say to him ‘we did it’ full of a mix of excitement and relief at the same time.”

Beckman will try and win the league title outright Thursday night when it plays at Northwood. If Northwood, the defending league champion wins, the two squads would share the league title. If Beckman wins, the Patriots capture the league title outright.

The game begins at 7 p.m. Please click here for the results of that game.

“Thursday is a very important game,” Goins said. “We are going into it with the same determination that we would have if our records were still even. We don’t want to be co-league champions, and we get to control that outcome by executing and playing the type of basketball we have over the last three games. We know that Northwood is going to come and play their best game of the season, we’re going to be ready for it.”

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