CdM, behind Stone’s 23-point effort, tops Crean Lutheran 79-67 in Beach Bash Tourney opener

Corona del Mar players celebrate after a big run Monday against Crean Lutheran.

Corona del Mar’s boys basketball team turned back a second half run by Crean Lutheran to capture a 79-67 victory Monday night in the opening round of the Beach Bash Tournament at CdM.

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Jack Stone led Corona del Mar with 23 points Monday night.

Crean Lutheran coaches meet with the Saints Monday night during a timeout.

Jack Stone scored 23 points, 19 coming in the third quarter to lead the Sea Kings. Stone made four 3-pointers in the third quarter to help CdM outscore Crean Lutheran 22-18.

Jake Hamilton scored 15 points and John Humphreys, off a successful stint as a wide receiver on the football team added 13 points for the Sea Kings (3-1).

Crean Lutheran (3-4) was led by Aiden Gilbert (21 points) and Gum Majak (17 points).

“That’s a very good team,” said CdM Coach Ryan Schachter. “We definitely played two or three notches higher than we did against Santa Fe and Beckman and having John and Ethan (Garbers) back from football just changes the dynamic in practice as well. I don’t think we got out-rebounded like we did against Beckman and even Santa Fe, we got pounded on the board because we don’t have a lot of physicalness outside of those guys.

“Our defense has been good and I think it’s been good all year but now we’re finishing the defensive possessions with rebounds, which is huge and the guards did a great helping on the boards as well. We felt offensively, we’re starting to click more.”

CdM looked to Stone in the third quarter and he delivered with a big-time performance.

“I know Shach has a lot of confidence in me,” Stone said. “Everyone has their role, mine is shooting three’s and when I get the ball, he encourages me to shoot. I had the shots, so I took them.”

CdM took a 41-31 lead at halftime but Crean Lutheran started the third quarter strong with an 10-2 run to cut the lead to 43-41.

However CdM got back on track. A 3-pointer later in the quarter by Stone put the Sea Kings ahead 56-41. The Sea Kings led by six going into the final quarter and eventually moved out to a 10-point lead with under five minutes left.

“They’re a well coached team and they run the heck out of their offense,” said Crean Lutheran’s first year coach Nate Klitzing. “It’s a task to guard. We kind of switched it up there in the second half. We threw some zone at them, it kind of slowed them down for a little bit and we kind of got back into it and then a couple of their shooters got hot again and that kind of opened it up and they kind of rode that hot hand down the stretch.

“We’re still a team that’s kind of coming together and defense and rebounding is the thing we’re trying to focus on the most. We’re not good at it yet, but we’re going to keep working at it.”

NEW CREAN LUTHERAN COACH HOPES TO MAINTAIN WINNING WAYS

BEACH BASH TOURNAMENT INCLUDES NO. 1-RANKED MATER DEI

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