Sailors fall to Fullerton

Patrick Laverty

Newport Harbor High’s boys basketball team got a first-hand look at

what the future looks like for UC Irvine, but if any Sailors are

Anteaters’ fans, they didn’t quite appreciate the work of Darren

Fells Tuesday.

Fells, a 6-foot-7, 240-pound senior who had signed a letter of

intent to play for Pat Douglass’ UCI squad, scored 24 points and

added 10 rebounds, five steals and three assists to lead Fullerton to

a 52-36 victory over the Sailors in the first round of the Anaheim

Convention Center tournament.

For Newport Harbor Coach Larry Hirst, it wasn’t so much what Fells

did as it was what his team didn’t do.

“I think as an overall team effort, we didn’t come out with any

energy,” Hirst said.

That allowed Fullerton (5-0) to build a 27-14 halftime advantage

behind 13 first-half points from Fells.

He was particularly dominant in the second quarter when he made

all five of his field-goal attempts. Despite his big body, he showed

a nice touch in banking a pair of turnaround baseline jumpers off the

glass. The left-hander added two 12- to 15-foot jumpers in the

quarter and also scored a traditional three-point play after Xavier

Hicks drove into the lane.

“You’ve got to give Fullerton credit,” Hirst said. “They went

right down to their big guy and he showed why he’s going where he’s

going.”

The Sailors didn’t always look like they knew where they wanted to

go and a lack of aggressiveness on offense was their undoing.

“I think we were a little intimated at the start,” Hirst said.

“Every third possession or when we decided to be aggressive, good

things happened. But we wasted a lot of possessions today.”

The Sailors kept within striking distance behind eight

third-quarter points from Jamie Diefenbach, who led the Tars (5-2)

with 12 points. But Harbor could never get the lead under 10 points.

Harbor’s best opportunity to get back into the contest came late

in the third quarter after Diefenbach blocked Fells’ shot. With 30

seconds remaining in the half, the Sailors could have cut the lead to

10 with a three-pointer, but weren’t able to muster a significant

scoring opportunity.

“I don’t want to take anything away from Fullerton, but I think a

lot of the things we did were self-imposed,” Hirst said.

The Indians, who advance to the second round, where they will play

Esperanza, put the game out of reach by scoring the first five points

of the fourth quarter on a three-pointer by David Allen and a pair of

free throws from Fells.

Newport Harbor will return to tournament action Thursday in a

consolation game against Trabuco Hills at 6 p.m. at Katella High.

*--*

Anaheim Convention Center tournament First

round

Fullerton 52, Newport Harbor 36

Score by Quarters

Harbor 8 6 12 10 -- 36

Fullerton 10 17 12 13 -- 52

Harbor -- Mouradyan 5, Hunter 1, Perrine 7,

Diefenbach 12, Young 6, Heenan 2, Gausewitz

0, Orth 3, MacBeth 0, Allee 0, Holbrook 0.

3-pt. goals -- Mouradyan 1, Perrine 1, Orth

1. Fullerton -- Fells 24, Hicks 2, Hoerner

10, Baion 2, Jesse Hernandez 2, Herrera 2,

Allen 10. 3-pt. goals -- Allen 2.

*--*