Beckman boys basketball team takes charge in fourth quarter and defeats Irvine 61-48

Beckman’s Dylan Thoerner waits for a pass from Aaman Soma as Irvine players, including Kyle Anderson (No. 2). Hunter Anderson and Chase Porter (No. 32) defend.

Beckman’s boys basketball team won its third game out of the gate in Pacific Coast League play, defeating Irvine 61-48 Tuesday night at Irvine.

The Patriots (14-6, 3-0) led 34-32 at halftime and 46-41 after three quarters before sealing the victory in the fourth quarter, outscoring Irvine 15-7.

“It went the way I actually thought it would,” said Beckman Coach John Goins. “I knew it would be a really tough one. They hit a few more shots than I probably thought that they would hit, but they’re home. We gave up 32 in the first half to them and only 16 in the second half and that was really the difference.

“It was a good Pacific Coast League game; is what that was.”

Beckman was led by Dylan Thoerner who had 22 points and Christopher Muller who scored 16 points.

“Chris doesn’t get as much attention as I think he should,” Goins said. “He’s a little undersized but he’s really strong and he has great feet and we’re looking for him at all times. Thoerner, you know what you’re going to get out of him. He hit a bunch of big free throws there (four in the fourth quarter). They were really tight on him the whole time; we just tried to find space for him.”

Irvine (11-9, 2-1) was led by Hunter Anderson and Chris Dean who had 13 points each and Devin Lee, who had 10 points.

Irvine was coming off a second place finish in the Rancho Alamitos Tournament (click here for the details) over the holiday break and has been making strides this year under Coach Kris Klamberg. But Dean and Kyle Anderson picked up their fourth fouls in the second half forcing them to be more cautious on defense. Kyle Anderson had eight points.

“For about three quarters, I thought we did all right and then they kind of opened it up a little bit,” Klamberg said. “I thought we actually did OK on Thoerner for a good stretch of the game. He’s such a good player. He made good plays down the stretch and number 25 (Muller) was quite good for them tonight.

“We made it a game for a while, but they definitely owned the fourth quarter and a little bit of foul trouble changed the game a little bit. We had to do some rotations there. The guys have been doing a pretty good job of shooting the ball from three. We didn’t shoot the ball as well tonight as we needed to. But credit to them; they’re a good team and they did a nice job and they’ve got some depth and they can wear you down a little bit.”

Klamberg said he is pleased with Irvine’s progress.

“I’m proud of our guys,” he said. “We’re going to get back to work tomorrow and have a short memory with a game coming up on Friday (at Irvine). We got to have a good one on Friday.”

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