Irvine players celebrate Tuesday’s PCL victory over Woodbridge. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Irvine’s boys basketball team held off a fourth quarter charge by Woodbridge to capture a 43-37 victory Tuesday night in a Pacific Coast League opener at Irvine.
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Irvine (10-9, 1-0) held a three-point lead going into the fourth quarter before Woodbridge sophomore Jahan Adloo tied the game with a 3-pointer. However, Irvine responded with seven straight points to regain control.
Woodbridge made a final run cutting the lead to one point in the final minutes but Chase Brito hit a 3-pointer with 44 seconds left to put Irvine ahead 41-37. Brito and Holden Stearns each sank a free throw to close out the win.
Brito had a game high and career high 22 points.
Woodbridge (12-7, 0-1) was without senior starting guard Jaiden Sabino, who leads the team in most offensive categories including points with a 25-point average. Sabino, the Warriors’ inspirational leader, suffered a fractured hand in a tournament game a couple weeks ago, according to Coach Steve Scoggin. His status is week to week.
“Excellent way to start league,” said Irvine Coach Harry Meussner. “That’s a really tough opponent. Obviously, they’re missing Jaiden Sabino, who is a remarkable player and if he was healthy, arguably the MVP of this league, he’s that good and we wish him a speedy recovery but nonetheless, Woodbridge has guys and they’re really talented and the fact that we were able to stymie them a little bit tonight, it would have been nice if we could have made a few more buckets to not keep it so tight the whole game.
“But I’m really proud of the defensive effort because all those guys can make shots and credit to our boys for defending and sticking to the game plan.”
Brito was the only Vaquero scoring in double figures. Jalen Yim and Shawn Rahimi had six points each for the Vaqueros.
Meussner was also pleased with the defensive effort of guard Bently Nguyen, who he described as a “motor from the beginning of the game. He plays with his whole heart. And our captains Jalen and Holden (Stearns) really understood the game plan, they’ve been in the situation before, it’s not their first rodeo.
“I thought they did a really good job and Evan (Terakawa) always holding down the paint for us, making every shot tough because if it’s over him, that’s a tough shot and he did a great job of guarding without fouling … and big shoutout to Chase Brito, who offensively and defensively led us today. He was knocking down big shots, especially the one at the end …. he has nothing but confidence in himself and we just love to support that.”
Brito, who played at the end of the season on varsity last year, had six of his points in the final quarter to help Irvine outscore Woodbridge 12-9.
“I think coming into this game, we were really prepared, we knew everything and …. we had the energy up and everyone contributed during practice prepping for this was really key and we got the win,” Brito said. “I think it’s really big, starting off 1-0 is a big thing, it keeps the energy up and everyone has high hopes, but we still have six more games and we’re treating it the same and we’re going to stay as ready as possible.”
Meussner said when the game is on the line, Brito wants the ball and he came through with a big 3-pointer in the final stanza.
“I think it was everybody, our point guards were getting us the sets, I think everyone is doing a good job spacing and we had a good offense,” Brito said.
Adloo led Woodbridge with 13 points, including seven in the final quarter to give the Warriors a chance at a comeback. Kishan Pandhoh and Garrett DiConstanzo had seven points each for Woodbridge.
Irvine led 11-9 after one quarter and 21-15 at halftime. Woodbridge kept it close in the third quarter but Scoggin said Sabino’s absence was felt.
“I was trying to figure out ways to win games without Jaiden,” he said. “That’s what it comes down to, it just shows you how important he really is, but our guys got to step up. We had the game tied with a couple minutes to go or a minute to go and we come down and mess up a couple defensive possessions and they make shots, and we come down and turn the ball over.
“It’s hard to win the game when you have double digit turnovers and miss five or six layups. We all got to step up, that’s what it is. I think we beat ourselves tonight. Irvine did a great job, but I’ve been telling our guys all year, it’s about us. When we play our basketball, we can beat a lot of teams.
“It’s been a great year, we’ve beaten some really good teams. Our losses we had were against really good teams against Division 1 or Division 2 teams and they’ve all been close. We’ve got to find a way to win it.”
Scoggin said Sabino will get an exam Wednesday and will know when and if he can return.
“Hopefully, we get him back at some point in league,” Scoggin said. “If not, we got to try and get at least fourth place to get into the playoffs and then have him ready.”
League teams will again compete in an end of season tournament, this year at Woodbridge. Teams face each other just one time in league play before that.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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