Boys basketball: Hawks surprise Sailors

Barry Faulkner

NEWPORT BEACH - While their fellow students stayed home in droves

Wednesday to study for semester finals, the Newport Harbor High boys

basketball team basically ensured its Sea View League title hopes will be

decided on a pass/fail basis Friday at Woodbridge High.

Laguna Hills (13-10, 2-4 in league) led for all but a few minutes to

upset the host Sailors, 48-42, trimming Harbor’s lead over Woodbridge to

a half-game, heading into Friday’s showdown.

“It would have been nice to have a (one-game) cushion going into Friday,”

said Harbor Coach Larry Hirst, whose squad, No. 9 in Orange County and

No. 10 in CIF Southern Section Division II-AA, fell to 16-7, 5-1. “But

it’s a must-win situation, now.”

Coach Dave Brown’s Hawks left the Sailors little cushion Wednesday,

concentrating its defense on Harbor standouts Dustin Illingworth and

Aaron Yarnal.

Illingworth still managed a game-high 21 points and Yarnal chipped in 12,

but the other six Sailors who played managed only nine additional points.

“The key to our success the last two to three weeks is that we’ve always

had two or three other guys (besides Illingworth and Yarnal) step up and

produce,” Hirst said. “Nobody did that tonight.”

Newport’s other three starters were a combined 0 for 12 from the field.

Only senior guard Justin Reynolds, who scored six points off the bench,

including a third-quarter three-pointer, kept Illingworth and Yarnal from

monopolizing Newport’s field goals.

The Sailors hit just 15 of 45 field-goal attempts, just 3 of 11 in the

final period. Their fourth-quarter cool spell kept them from taking

advantage of five Laguna Hills turnovers in the period. The Hawks had 12

turnovers total.

“We’ve played well throughout league,” Brown said. “Other than a loss to

Woodbridge, our games have been very close. We just hadn’t been able to

close anyone (besides last-place Irvine) out, until tonight.”

The Hawks closed out the Sailors with unselfish passing, hot spells from

the field (12 of 23 in the second and third periods), strong rebounding

(besting the Tars, 28-23) and scrappy defense.

Harbor never scored consecutive field goals and did not lead after Tony

Melum’s two free throws gave it a 22-21 edge with 1:34 left in the first

half.

A Marshall Houser layup gave the Hawks a 23-22 edge at intermission and

Chris Lee’s hot shooting in the third quarter helped up the lead to four.

Lee, who had missed all three tries from three-point range in the first

two quarters, including an air ball, drilled a three ball and added two

more field goals without a miss in the period. He also netted his only

three-point attempt in the fourth quarter and hit a pair of free throws

with 16 seconds left to ice the upset.

“We’ve kind of been waiting for (Lee) to do that,” Brown said. “He has

that kind of ability.”

Illingworth, who hit 10 of 14 free throws in the Tars’ 45-40 win at

Laguna Hills, Jan. 12, was 5 of 7 from the foul line Wednesday. He was 8

of 14 from the field, but was the only Sailor to shoot better than 50%.

“Out plan was to play five-on-two, sagging on Illingworth and helping on

Yarnal,” Brown said.

“They obviously didn’t shut down Dustin,” Hirst said. “But they took

everyone else away.”

Illingworth added seven rebounds, while Reynolds added five steals.

“(Reynolds) played well,” said Hirst, who hopes his team can muster the

kind of intensity Friday which keyed a 59-57 overtime win over Woodbridge

in their first meeting (Jan. 14).

HIGH SCHOOL BOYS

Sea View League

Laguna Hills 48, Newport Harbor 42

Score by Quarters

Laguna Hills 12 11 16 9 - 48

Newport Harbor 13 9 13 7 - 42

Laguna Hills - Lee 16, Houser 9, Stone 8, Anderson 6, Vollenhals 5,

Homyak 4.

3-pt. goals - Lee 2, Vollenhals 1.

Fouled out - None.

Technicals - None.

Newport Harbor - Illingworth 21, Yarnall 12, Reynolds 6, Melum 4, Rorden

0, Perrine 0, Knutti 0, Martin 0.

3-pt. goals - Reynolds 1.

Fouled out - None.

Technicals - None.