PHOTOS: Sage Hill, led by Carter Bryant, takes over first place with win over Woodbridge

Carter Bryant (right) of Sage Hill and Jason Briggs of Woodbridge go for the jump ball.
(Photo courtesy Jose Lomboy).

Sage Hill High School’s boys basketball team continued its stellar run in its inaugural season in the Pacific Coast League with a 61-59 victory over Woodbridge Tuesday night at Woodbridge in a battle of two teams who were undefeated in league.

Sage Hill moved up from the Academy League and after a slow start, the Lightning is 8-11 overall and ranked 10th in the 4A division in its first season in the PCL.

Woodbridge put up quite a battle until the end. JC Schindler sank a 3-pointer with less than a second left to cut the lead to two points.

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But Sage Hill, behind the 24-point, 11-rebound effort of 6-8 center Carter Bryant held on. Johnny Mayhew added 15 points and 10 rebounds and Andrew Cobb 10 points for the Lightning (5-0 in league).

Stephen Lamp had 18 points, Ethan Fu 16 points and Schindler 12 points, all in the second half for Woodbridge (12-12, 4-1).

The difference was Bryant, who had a big dunk in the second quarter for the Lightning and was also a force on defense with several blocks. Woodbridge coach Steve Scoggin argued that one of the blocks should have been a goal-tending call.

“I just loved how we shared the ball,” said Bryant, who transferred from Fountain Valley High School. “We trusted each other in the second half. In the first half, we actually started off pretty well and then we kind of slowed down and started doing our own thing.

“But as the game went on, we just trusted the coaching staff and our game plan. We knew what they were going to do, it was just a matter of us executing down the stretch.”

The game was tied 23-23 at halftime but Woodbridge had a big third quarter outscoring Sage Hill 18-15 to take 41-38 lead going into the final quarter.

Sage Hill regrouped and moved out to a 57-53 lead with 1:19 remaining. Woodbridge was unable to convert on its end and Cobb sank two free throws with 19 seconds left to give Sage Hill a comfortable lead.

Woodbridge, trying to contain Bryant, got in foul trouble, which hurt the Warrriors down the stretch.

“Our guys followed the game plan the majority of the game,” said Scoggin. “Twenty-four (Bryant) is tough. But other guys stepped up. You got to give them credit for making plays at the end. Our foul trouble really hurt us but you can’t complain about that.

“Guys stepped up coming off the bench, but toward the end, the foul trouble really hurt us and not being able to have our guys out there the whole time but our kids battled, they battled their hearts out. They just made a couple more plays than we did.”

The victory puts Sage Hill alone in first place in the league. The league teams will use a tournament for their second round of play.

“We didn’t start off too well to start the season,” Bryant said. “I think we started off 3-11. Now we’re at 8-11. It’s just us winning big games and us executing down the stretch. We took our losses and our hits and bumps and bruises and now it’s time for us to start handing them out.”

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