Boys basketball: Tars roll past Upland, 70-49

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - If Newport Harbor High’s boys basketball team

viewed Upland as an early-season litmus test Thursday night, the Sailors

passed with flying colors.

“On any given night, if we play both ends of the floor, we can be

competitive with a lot of people,” said Newport Harbor Coach Larry Hirst,

following his team’s surprisingly easy 70-49 victory over large-school

powerhouse Upland in the final pool-play game of the Bill Reynolds

Classic at Newport Harbor.

The Sailors (5-1), who will face tonight’s El Toro-Martin Luther King

winner in the championship game Saturday night at 7:30, used excellent

team passing to break Upland’s full-court press and eventually build a

25-point lead in the third quarter against a program that captured the

CIF Southern Section Division I-A title last year and finished 32-2.

“Tonight,” Hirst said, “we had five guys all on the same page.”

Tony Melum, a 6-foot-6 senior forward, led Newport Harbor with 23

points (20 in the first half), five rebounds, three steals, three blocked

shots and three assists, while 6-3 senior forward Erik Peterson and 6-8

junior center Nedim Pajevic sparked the Sailors in the third quarter when

they built their biggest lead of the game, 54-29, after Peterson’s first

three-pointer 2:08 into the period.

Upland (1-1), which returns four lettermen from last year’s team (but

no starters), opened with an 11-5 lead as the Highlanders hit three

three-pointers and caused Newport Harbor problems with the press.

But the Tars didn’t stay rattled for long as they turned the tables,

and, at times, made it look easy on offense with players cutting to the

basket and scoring on bounce passes inside.

They outscored Upland, 9-0, to conclude the first quarter and carried

the momentum into the second, when Newport blitzed Upland, 18-2, in the

first 4:41 of the period for a 36-17 advantage.

“For us, when we get 90% of the guys on the floor concentrating and

focused, we can play this way, because we’ve got a good game plan,” Hirst

said. “Trip by trip, possession by possession, (our lead) kept building.

We got it up to 20 points, and I was surprised. It felt like it was only

an eight-point game most of the night.”

Pajevic scored 19 points for Harbor and added nine rebounds (four

offensive), while Peterson finished with a dozen points and point guard

Chase Cameron had four rebounds, three assists and two steals. Sophomore

guard Andre Pinesett had five rebounds for Newport and hit a

three-pointer in the second quarter during his team’s big run.

Melum canned a three-pointer with 0:54 left in the first half to give

Newport Harbor a comfortable 39-24 halftime lead, and the Tars continued

to roll in the third.

Todd Martin led Upland with 13 points, while Jay Rasch had 10 for the

designated hosts. Upland never got closer than 18 points in the second

half.

BILL REYNOLDS CLASSIC

Pool play

Newport Harbor 70, Upland 49

Score by Quarters

Newport Harbor 18 21 20 11 - 70 Upland 15 9 12 13 - 49 Newport - Cameron 6, Peterson 12, Pajevic 19, Pinesett 7, Melum 23,

Diefenbach 1, Melgar 0, Rorden 0, Glassic 0, Boyd 2, Tully 0, Louvier 0,

Fortier 0.

3-pt. goals - Melum 3, Peterson 2, Pinesett 1.

Fouled out - Diefenbach.

Technicals - Tully.

Upland - Burrell 2, Rasch 10, Hatter 0, Holland 9, Martin 13, Hines 6,

Mason 4, Cole 2, Bascomb 1, Robinson 2.

3-pt. goals - Rasch 2, Holland 1, Martin 1.

Fouled out - none.

Technicals - none.