Dana Hills breaks it open in second quarter and coasts past Santa Ana 57-22 in tourney

Senior Harrison Weise led Dana Hills past Santa Ana Wednesday night. (Photo Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone)

Dana Hills boys basketball team jumped out to a commanding halftime lead and coasted to a 57-22 victory over Santa Ana Wednesday night in the second round of the Santa Ana Garden Grove Boys Basketball 2019 Four City Classic at Santa Ana.

The victory sends the Dolphins into the semifinals of the tournament on Friday night at 6 p.m. against either El Modena or Garden Grove at Santa Ana. The championship game is Saturday at 2 p.m. at Santa Ana.

Harrison Weise scored the first nine points for the Dolphins (2-0) and wound up with 16 points. Dana Hills led 29-10 at halftime and built its lead to 35 points in the third quarter and began to substitute freely.

“At the beginning of the game it was kind of a slow pace, both teams were looking for good shots in the paint,” said Dana Hills Coach Tom Desiano. “Toward the end of the first quarter we wanted to get the tempo going a little bit so we extended our defense and did a little trapping and picking up full court and that helped us get our offense going a little bit and from there we played pretty well.”

The Dolphins have looked to the 6-6 Weise for scoring.

“He’s been our leading scorer the last couple of games and last year as well, he’s a four-year varsity kid and knows what to do and we hope he continues for the season,” the coach said.

Sophomore Christian Boehmer added eight points for Dana Hills.

“He came off the bench and had a couple three’s,” Desiano said.

Santa Ana (0-2) suffered with cold shooting and turnovers throughout the night. Sebastian Olvera led the Saints with six points.

“It’s still early, we’re still working out our kinks and figuring out our rotation,” said Santa Ana Coach Fareed El Masry. “We’re still young and we’re going to figure out kind of our identity. We don’t have one right now. Games like this are actually good for us because we really see our true colors.

“As long as we’re ready by January, that’s our goal. It’s not like the boys are mentally down or anything. They’re still confident and they know what’s important, they have their eye on the prize.”

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