PCL shocker: Portola upsets Beckman 66-60 and Northwood moves into first place with 67-58 overtime victory over Uni

Portola’s Mohsen Hashemi is guarded by Beckman’s Tommy Feldman Thursday night.

Portola’s boys basketball team pulled off one of its biggest victories in its inaugural varsity season, upsetting Beckman 66-60 in a Pacific Coast League game Thursday night at Portola.

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The Bulldogs (12-12, 3-3) handed Beckman (15-8, 4-2) a devastating defeat and moved into third place in the PCL. The Patriots were tied for first place with Northwood coming into the game.

But Northwood moved alone into first place with a 67-58 victory in overtime over University, one game ahead of Beckman.

Beckman, shooting for its first league title, was without standout guard Dylan Thoerner (flu) and junior point guard Jared Shintani. Thoerner, who was at home trying to get well, has been averaging around 20 points a game.

“This is a huge win for our program, being a first-year program and going against a great team like Beckman, they’re well coached and they have good players,” said Portola Coach Brian Smith. “I know they were minus Dylan today but the rest of the crew was hard-working and they’re strong and they attack the basket well. This is big for our guys.”

Moshen Hashemi scored 27 points and Tyler Huang added 13 points for Portola, who was without one of its standout guards Robert Giraldy, who suffered a facial injury in Tuesday’s game against Woodbridge.

“We actually lost to them the last time we played them and had a pretty off game,” Hashemi said. “We came back today, we were missing our starting point guard (Giraldy) and we kind of had a motivation to come out and win for him and try to get our revenge from them (Beckman) and we came out and won the game.”

Portola led 50-46 after three quarters but Beckman tied the game early in the fourth quarter.

The Bulldogs led 60-56 before Shub Khandhadia hit a 3-pointer with 1:20 left to close the gap to one. However, Hashemi countered with a basket to put Portola up by three points, much to the delight of the home fans, who were also entertained by a talented Portola pep band.

He also made one of two free throws with 14.3 seconds left to make it 64-60 and Beckman was unable to convert on its next trip down.

Khandhadia led Beckman with 14 points. Christopher Muller added 11 points for the Patriots.

“Portola played a very strong game and neutralized our bigs early,” said Beckman Coach John Goins. “Without two starters (Thoerner and Shintani) we struggled with flow along with (Aaman) Soma being in foul trouble all game.

“We lost our composure in the fourth quarter, giving away a few precious points (on two separate technical fouls) and Portola executed well to close out the game. We need to be better; other teams are improving and I feel like we are static at the moment. Hopefully we can get things righted for the last four games.”

Shoma Doherty added eight points for Portola.

NORTHWOOD CELEBRATES WIN OVER UNI

Across town, Northwood was celebrating its overtime victory over University.

Seth Locke scored 26 points and made four 3-pointers to lead the Timberwolves. Amit Flint had 14 points and Shandon Sharifi 13 points for Northwood (12-11, 5-1) Locke made a 3-pointer with four seconds left in regulation to send the game into overtime.

University fell to 13-11 overall and 2-4 in league.

Northwood and Beckman meet on the final game of the regular season. Beckman will need another PCL team to knock off Northwood in order to have a chance at a share of a league title.

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