Beckman boys basketball team takes 4-game winning streak into game against Villa Park

Aaman Soma has helped Beckman put together a 4-game winning streak.

Beckman’s boys basketball team has a 4-game winning streak going into its next game on Wednesday against undefeated Villa Park (10-0) in the Spartans home gymnasium.

Villa Park, ranked fourth in the county by the Orange County Register, won the Godinez Invitational Saturday.

“The boys are learning how to win,” said Beckman Coach John Goins.  “Our four-game win streak started with a 20 point win over Godinez’s tournament finalist, Yorba Linda, then a 20-point win over Valencia followed by wins over CDM and now Trabuco Hills.

“We have a great Villa Park team on Wednesday who is undefeated this year, so we’re going to go there and play our game and compete and see what happens. Then cross-town rival Foothill at their place on Friday night. It’s been a run of challenging games and opponents and we will keep this up until league play begins later this month. I think we will be well prepared to challenge for our first league title this season.”

In Friday 61-58 victory over Trabuco Hills, the Patriots (6-2 overall) rallied from a 39-16 halftime deficit.

“Our first half was abysmal,” Goins said. “We shot 7 of 30 with 11 turnovers in that half and just looked out of sync with everything. At halftime I told the boys it was not an X’s and O’s issue; what needed to be adjusted was their mentality.

“When we came out for the second half we scored a couple quick baskets and then it just kept going, I just tried to stay out of their way. We outscored Trabuco 23-5 in the third quarter, and continued the run in the  fourth outscoring them 22-14. We went 7 of 11 on 3’s in the second half and took them out of their offensive rhythm.”

Beckman took a 55-53 lead with two minutes left, then Jared Shintani hit a 3-pointer with one minute remaining to put the Patriots ahead 58-53.

Trabuco Hills then came back to tie the game 58-58 with 28 seconds left.

“I call a timeout in the front court and tell the boys that we have to take the last shot, so hold for it and I diagram a look for (Dylan) Thoerner,” Goins said. “Trabuco’s defense shaded toward him which put them out of position on a Shintani, letting him find Tommy Feldman on the wing for a wide open 3 which he hit with 2.8 seconds remaining.

“Following a timeout, Trabuco throws a 3/4 court inbound which is stolen, ending the game.”

Thoener had 15 points in the second half. Sophomore Ethan Bozzo had a big game filling in for injured starter Chris Muller with 10 points and 12 rebounds.