BOYS’ BASKETBALL / SEA VIEW LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Third-Quarter Run Helps Santa Margarita Roll On

Ever since his team’s somewhat surprising loss to Fountain Valley in the Orange Holiday Tournament last month, Santa Margarita Coach Jerry DeBusk has driven home a point to his Eagles.

Take no one for granted, not even a team that’s hurting as badly as Corona del Mar was Friday night.

Which is why the Eagles (19-1, 5-0) managed to outlast banged-up Corona del Mar, 62-53, before an estimated 1,100 at Santa Margarita. It was their eighth consecutive victory and 22nd in a row at home.

They won by blasting Corona del Mar (10-9, 2-3), 16-4, in the third quarter to take a 48-30 lead into the final period. It was enough of a cushion to survive a 25-point outburst from Sea King guard Brian Fracalosy.

Fracalosy made all five of his shot attempts in the second quarter, went 0-10 in the third and half of the fourth, then sank four of his five three-pointers in the final four minutes of the game.

“I was a bit in awe of him,” DeBusk said. “He was hitting hard shots; we weren’t giving him anything.”

And when the Eagles weren’t making shots from the field--17 of 44 from outside--they made the most of their free-throw opportunities. The Eagles made 12 foul shots in each half, and were 24 of 31 overall. Corona del Mar went the line nine times, making six.

“To me that was the difference,” said Sea King Coach Paul Orris, whose team lost its third in a row. “I told our team before the game for us to have a chance to win we needed to get at least 25 free-throw attempts. “But I do think we’re coming out of our funk. Tonight we played harder than we did the last two games.”

No matter, Corona del Mar never led. They were tied at 2-2, but fell behind 15-6 after the first quarter. They had closed to 32-26 at the half, but had the disastrous third period.

A perfect run through the first half of league play was one of DeBusk’s goals.

“We wanted to win the first round of league because we have some critical road games coming up in the second half,” DeBusk said.

Nick Maroutsos led Santa Margarita with 16 points. Allen Krist added 12 points and 16 rebounds.

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In other league games:

Irvine 53, El Toro 45--Darrel Parker scored 21 points for host Irvine (9-12, 3-2), which outscored El Toro, 14-0, in the second quarter.

Woodbridge 81, Newport Harbor 56--Ricky Jenkins scored 16 points, Chris Burgess had 15 and Todd Semm 13 for the Warriors (14-7, 3-2). For Newport Harbor (8-12, 2-3) Mark Hornung scored 12.