Los Alamitos reaches Tustin Classic final again with decisive win over Calvary Chapel

Trent Minter was one of the scoring leaders for Los Alamitos Friday. (Photo: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

Los Alamitos High School’s boys basketball team put on another offensive show Friday night and advanced into the championship of the Tustin Classic for the third year in a row.

The Griffins defeated Calvary Chapel 107-65 in the first semifinal and will meet Tustin Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in the championship game of the 16-team tournament. Los Alamitos is going for its third straight Tustin Classic title.

Los Alamitos, which has been averaging about 88 points a game, scored 95 points vs. Damonte Ranch Thursday and 101 vs. Mid Pacific from Hawaii on Wednesday.

“It was similar to last time we played, just playing at that pace,” said Los Alamitos Coach Nate Berger. “We talked over the last two games there were just some lazy mistakes, I was really happy that we kind of cleaned that up. There were a couple possessions in this game, it helped that they were playing zone where we moved the ball to both sides and had all five players touch it and got a wide, wide open three.

“We have five guys who can shoot it. If you take a semi-contested shot, that’s almost a bad shot for us because if we can work it around for wide open shots, these kids can knock it down. You see it from kids who come off the bench, they’re lethal shooters so I was happy how we did that, a little bit more intensity and focus on trying to put our stamp on the game, I thought we did a good job of that.”

Los Alamitos (13-3) had five players score in double figures. Liam Gray led the way with 15 points. Wesley Trevino had 14 points, Trent Minter 12 points and Samori Guyness and William Morales had 10 points each.

Calvary Chapel (10-7) was led by Jordan Embry who had 18 points. Isaiah Guerra added 11 points and Carson Franklin eight points.

Los Alamitos led 25-15 after one quarter and 57-35 at halftime before its extending its lead in the third quarter.

“It was a great team win,” said Minter, a 6-6 junior. “Everybody got to get in and get their points, we took them out early, that’s what we like to do but it was a great team win overall. It’s the most fun way to play basketball, just go up and down ….. it’s the best team chemistry I’ve ever played on.”

The players were excited to get a chance to play for another title.

“A lot of these kids played in the championship game last year against Tesoro, a really good team last year and we pulled it out somehow,” Berger said. “They begged me to come back here to defend the title so I told them, why not. Hardly do you ever get 16-year-olds telling you they want to do something so I let them have it.”

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