December 22, 2024

OC Sports Zone: Community First

Yorba Linda and Cypress earn titles; Tustin reaches playoffs, Valencia and Beckman win

Yorba Linda’s boys basketball team clinched the North Hills League title Tuesday night, defeating Brea Olinda 71-66.

The Mustangs (16-11, 5-0) were led by Luke Ishikawa, who had 28 points and Chance Sandoval, who had 14 points. Cory Knutson had 13 points and Connor Platt added 11 points for the Mustangs, who led 29-24 at halftime.

Tristan Montera scored 13 points and Aiden Stewart 12 points for Brea Olinda (16-11, 2-3).

Tustin 47, Pacifica 32: Tustin (18-9, 5-4) clinched third place in the Empire League and a CIF playoff berth with the victory. Bradley Burdick led the Tilers with nine points and 10 rebounds.  Jason Naranjo had eight points and Ben Ahinaquah added seven points and nine rebounds. 

Tustin led 25-7 at the half before Pacifica came storming back and cut the lead to six points in the second half.  Connor McElroy had a clutch basket to stop the Pacifica run and grabbed six rebounds.

“Kyan Patel and Ryan Stading played terrific defense in limiting Pacifica’s leading scorer Tyler Fabisiak to just eight points and only two made field goals,” said Tustin Coach Ringo Bossenmeyer.

Tustin finishes the regular season Thursday night at Pacifica.

Beckman 79, University 72: The Patriots (15-12, 7-2) remained one game behind Pacific Coast League leader Portola which clinched at least a share of the title. David Manea scored 23 points, Jared Shintani had 14 points and Ethan Bozzo 13 points.

University was led by Kody Uyesugi with 29 points and seven 3-pointers.

Cypress 63, Kennedy 58: The Centurions (22-5) battled back in the fourth quarter to keep clinch the outright title for the third consecutive year on senior night.

Cypress extended its league winning streak to 29 games over three years. Cypress has a 14-game winning streak this year.

Elijah Vaielua led Cypress with 19 points, 22 rebounds and four steals. Eddie Spencer added 14 points making three 3-pointers and grabbed seven rebounds while Christian Chai added 13 points. 

Valencia 51 Crean Lutheran 50: Freshman Eli Arthurton made a lay-up with 4.1 seconds remaining to win the Empire League game for Valencia. Arthurton also hit a 3-point shot with 18.6 seconds remaining.

His brother Isaiah Arhturton rebounded the front end of a 1 and 1 threw a long pass to Eli who drove from the right wing to score the winning bucket, according to Valencia Coach Dean Yoshimura. Mikey Palacios led the Tigers with 14 points and four 3-pointers while Andy Hon had 13 points and two 3-pointers.

Eli Arthurton scored all five of his points in the final 18.6 seconds. The Tigers are now 4-5 and in fourth place in the league and 18-9 overall. Crean Lutheran (15-10, 6-3) is in second place.