Woodbridge holds off Portola’s upset bid in PCL basketball tournament

Jason Briggs of Woodbridge looks to pass off as Brady Kim of Portola defends. No. 13 is Stephen Lamp, No. 12 Jaiden Sabino and No. 3 JC Schindler. (Photo: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

Woodbridge High School’s boys basketball team held off a challenge by Portola Wednesday night to capture a 54-46 victory over the Bulldogs in the opening round of the Pacific Coast League tournament at Woodbridge.

Woodbridge came into the tournament seeded third and Portola was sixth At the end of the tournament Friday, four teams will earn automatic berths for the CIF playoffs based on points collection in the first round and the tournament.

Wednesday’s game was hard-fought from start to finish with players from both teams giving it their all.

Woodbridge led 36-34 at halftime and led by only three with 2:32 remaining in the game. But the Warriors’ Jaiden Sabino drilled a 3-pointer, Jason Briggs had a basket and JC Schindler sank two free throws to clinch the win.

Schindler had 20 points and moved closer to 1,000 points in his career. Stephen Lamp 14 points and Sabino 13 points for Woodbridge (16-9, 5-3). Portola (7-19, 3-5) was led by Krishna Gade, who had 18 points. Brady Kim added 10 points for the Bulldogs.

Woodbridge was able to avenge a 56-66 loss to Portola in the final game of PCL round one at Portola.

“They’re tough to play, they battle, Brian (Coach Smith) always does a great job getting them ready to play,” said Woodbridge Coach Steve Scoggin. “On the defensive end, we weren’t connected as much in the first half but we got connected in the second half.

“All year, it’s been keep playing, keep playing, keep playing and our defense stepped up in the second half, and that’s why we ended up taking this. But you got to give Portola credit. They battled all game.”

Woodbridge was able to outscore Portola 18-12 in the final quarter and made nine free throws. Sabino had 10 of the points in the quarter for the Warriors.

Smith, the Portola coach, was proud of his team which has had a tough season and likely needed to win all of its games to have a shot at a CIF berth.

“Great game, physical game back and forth, kudos to Woodbridge for making plays down the stretch, it came down to a couple possession game and I think we had probably a three-minute stretch where we turned the ball over and couldn’t score and gave them opportunities and they took advantage of them,” he said. “It’s disappointing for us because we’ve had an up and down season and lately we’ve been playing a little bit better.

“I feel bad for the guys because I know how badly they wanted to win this but it wasn’t meant to be.”

Smith praised the effort of his team’s leading scorer Gade, who has been solid all year.

“He played for us as a freshman, but then didn’t play his sophomore or junior year, didn’t play with us over the summer, he had some injuries but said, ‘coach, I just want to play my senior year, can you give me a look.’ We let him tryout and saw how big and athletic he was and we said ‘absolutely.’ He’s put his heart and soul into the team all year.”

Woodbridge plays at Northwood Thursday and Portola hosts University Thursday. The tournament wraps up with four games Friday at Portola.