Players from Newport Harbor (blue uniforms) and Corona del Mar wait for officials to rule on a play Wednesday night.
Newport Harbor’s boys basketball team, which defeated Corona del Mar 54-29 Wednesday night with one of its most impressive efforts of the season, gets to raise a Surf League banner.
To see the slide show, please click on the first photo.
But so does CdM, Edison and Los Alamitos. All four teams were 3-3 in league play.
The four teams wound up tied for the top spot in the first year of the league as a result of Los Alamitos’ 60-45 win over Edison Wednesday night.
Newport Harbor (24-4), Edison (18-10) and CdM (18-9) look like they’re headed to the CIF playoffs but Los Alamitos (11-16) may need to win in a playoff Thursday to advance.
“We’re all league champs apparently so everybody gets T-shirts,” said Newport Harbor Coach Robert Torribio. “We tied the school record for wins in a season with 24. We were also the only team that went undefeated in the crossover games.”
The 1985 and 1998 teams also had 24 wins, according to Torribio.
In order to determine the top two finishes for the CIF playoffs, there will be a mini-tournament Thursday night at Marina High.
CdM will be the visiting team and Newport Harbor the home team for the first game at 5:30 p.m. Los Alamitos will be the visiting team and Edison the home team for the 7 p.m.
The names of the teams were thrown into a hat and picked, said CdM Coach Ryan Schachter.
“The two winners are guaranteed a playoff berth,” Schachter said. “Los Al is the only one that has to win to make the playoffs.”
Newport, CdM and Los Alamitos are in 2AA for the playoffs and Edison is in Division 1.
In Wednesday’s game at CdM, Newport Harbor was able to avenge a 59-53 first-round loss to CdM at Newport Harbor on Jan. 18, taking charge early by moving out to a 16-6 lead after one quarter.
The Sailors led 30-14 at halftime and were in control the rest of the way.
“Rivalry game like that, our kids are going to play hard, it’s a fun environment and I’m excited for our guys,” said Torribio. “Obviously when the ball goes in for you like it did tonight, it’s going to make life a lot easier.”
Newport Harbor made 10 3-pointers in the game, five by Sam Barela who led the Sailors with 16 points. Robbie Spooner had 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Sailors.
“We were making some shots, the game is a lot easier when you’re making shots,” Torribio said.
Jack Stone scored 11 points to lead CdM.
But this night belonged to Newport Harbor.
“Everything,” Schachter said when asked what the difference was in this game with Newport Harbor. “Obviously, they shot lights out. Last game, they hit a couple shots early and they missed a lot of shots after that. They didn’t miss tonight and our guys were out of rhythm and did not play well. Offensively, it was Connor Schim’s first game back from being hurt and just couldn’t get in a rhythm.
“We were holding the ball too long. I thought even in the first half, even though they hit seven threes, I thought we played good defense. We didn’t score well.”
-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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