Newport Harbor’s Robbie Spooner is defended by Edison’s Luke Serven Friday night. (Photos: Fernando M. Donado, For OC Sports Zone)
Newport Harbor’s boys basketball team broke open a close game with a big third quarter run and went on to defeat Edison 61-44 Friday night in a consolation round game at the Grizzly Invitational.
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The two Surf League rivals battled from start to finish and the game had the intensity of a league match-up.
Edison (3-2) held a 30-29 lead at halftime, but Newport Harbor came out fired up with a 13-1 run to start the third quarter and wound up outscoring the Chargers 20-7 in the stanza to take control of the game.
Robbie Spooner led Newport Harbor (5-2) with 29 points and five 3-pointers.
“There were no big adjustments,” Newport Coach Bob Torribio said of the third quarter run. “You’re playing against Edison, you know they’re going to play hard and they’re going to be well coached. I think Coach (Rich) Boyce played it pretty straight tonight, kind of like we did, not running a whole lot and playing it like a December tournament game trying to keep things simple.
“We just happened to knock down a couple of shots that gave us a little bit of a cushion and then from there, the game was pretty even the rest of the way.”
Spooner, a three-year varsity player, kept the Sailors close in the first half, scoring 17 points.
“Robbie has been on some pretty darn good teams the last couple of years,” Torribio said. “And he just knows how to compete and he plays both ends for us and for a shooter like him who dials in defensively like that helps you get going when you’re making plays defensively.”
“It was a big team effort and a great job on the defensive end,” Spooner said. “We did a great job passing the ball around and getting open looks and getting inside and getting easy lay-ups. My teammates just did a good job of finding me with the ball when I was open.”
Ryan Miller added 11 points and Luke Bashore scored six points and grabbed nine rebounds for Newport Harbor. Levi Darrow scored five points and had eight rebounds for the Sailors.
Edison was led by Connor Collins with 13 points and Luke Serven with 11 points. The Chargers were assessed two technical fouls in the third quarter for arguing calls.
“We were thoroughly out-played after the first quarter,” said Edison Coach Rich Boyce. “Too much concern over calls and not enough focus on us.”
-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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