Shandon Sharifi of Northwood drives to the basket in Monday’s game as Costa Mesa’s Hugo Menedez (left) and Aiden Spallone defend. (Photos courtesy Harrison Zhang, For OC Sports Zone)
Northwood High’s boys basketball team wrapped up play in the summer league tournament in Santa Ana with one of its best showings, defeating Costa Mesa 61-31 Monday night at Century.
To see the slide show, please click on the first photo
It’s been the kind of performance that has been typical for the Timberwolves this summer, according to Northwood Coach Tim O’Brien.
“Our summer has been very productive,” O’Brien said. “We have a solid group of returning players along with others that are learning to play together. I like this team.”
The Timberwolves got strong performances from Amit Flint (25 points) and Shandon Sharifi (16 points).
“Amit Flint and Shandon Sharifi have really expanded their overall game,” O’Brien said. “Both can really shoot it. Both are becoming leaders and both may just be the hardest two workers in the team. They check lots of boxes. Another guy who is really coming on strong is Trent Harper. He is a four year varsity guy now.”
Northwood jumped out to a 36-21 halftime lead and was in control the rest of the way.
Gio Quero led Costa Mesa with 15 points. Zach Mascarenos added six points for the Mustangs.
“Gio is a great player and played a lot as a sophomore last year,” said Costa Mesa Coach Mike Ofer. “He will probably be a captain for us this year as a junior.”
Ofer knew the Mustangs would need to come out strong.
“It was the last game for varsity for summer playing a good Northwood team that can shoot the ball really well, for us if we give anybody a 20-point lead in the first five munutes, it’s going to be tough to come back,” he said. “We just didn’t come out with the fire we needed to.
“But we have some guys with the JV team with us and we’re just trying to figure out the chemistry. We’re very young, we only have one senior in the entire program so we’ve got some shuffeling around to do. But overall, I saw some good things too. That’s what the summer is about, to find out what you got.”
Costa Mesa loses nine seniors off last year’s team, including standout guard Nico Dasca, that captured the Orange Coast League title with a 9-1 record. Dasca signed to play basketball at Vanguard University.
Dasca’s little brother, freshman Christian Dasca, will be among the players on the team.
“We got another one coming through the program which is always nice, that makes me happy,” Ofer said.
-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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