Sailors still seeking win

Chris Yemma

The Newport Harbor High boys basketball team drew the short straw for

the Bill Reynolds Classic Tuesday at Newport Harbor.

The Sailors (0-2) had to face Northwood, ranked No. 10 in CIF

Southern Section Division III-AA, at a point in the season when the

hungry Timberwolves were looking for their first win of the season.

As it turned out, Northwood got its first win, defeating Newport

Harbor, 56-49, in both schools’ first game in the tournament.

Northwood had previously lost to El Toro and Dana Hills in the first

two games of its season.

The Sailors trailed the entire game, portions of it by large sums

and at other times by one or two points. But every time Newport would

get close, the Timberwolves (1-2) would pull away.

“We had some stretches there -- two or three minutes in the third

quarter and two or three in the fourth quarter where offensively we

didn’t execute,” Newport Harbor Coach Larry Hirst said. “And when

you’re playing a good team, failure to execute is going to come back

and haunt you.”

With a little more than two minutes remaining in the third

quarter, Northwood took a 36-24 lead after Timberwolves’ sophomore

Noah Scott stole the ball and drove the court for a layup. Northwood

would hit one more shot to go up by 14 before Newport’s Tony Yahigan

hit two free throws after being fouled.

The Sailors pulled to within 41-35 after senior Brett Perrine hit

a half-court shot at the third-quarter buzzer. The Sailors kept the

momentum going into the fourth and came within one point, 43-42, on a

Vinnie Nasca steal and layup.

But in the final minutes Northwood ran away with it, going on a

9-3 run to finish the game and end any shot of Newport getting its

first victory of the season.

“They hit a lot of shots and we just couldn’t really execute,”

said Perrine, who finished with a game-high 29 points. “It was a

combination of Northwood being good and us not executing.”

Yahigan finished the game with five points.

“I think it was us,” Yahigan said. “I think if we played our game,

we could have beat them. We didn’t finish a lot of times, they had a

good game, but the only team that beat us was ourselves.”

Newport Harbor will be seeking its first win Thursday in the same

tournament against Pleasant Grove at 8 p.m. Yahigan said there are a

couple of things the team needs to work on to get that win.

“We need to work on ball control and better passes,” he said.

The championship game of the tournament is Saturday at 7 p.m.

*--*

Bill Reynolds Classic

Northwood 56, Newport Harbor 49

Score by Quarters

Northwood 12 13 16 15 -- 56

Newport 9 12 14 14 -- 49

Northwood -- Zaragoza 15, O’Brien 10, Keough

11, Selway 10, Kapil 7, Scott 4. 3-pt. goals

-- Zaragoza 1. Fouled out -- None. Technicals

-- None.

Newport -- Perrine 29, Yahigan 5, Heenan 2,

Slater 2, Stevens 3, Koon 6, Nasca 2. 3-pt.

goals -- Perrine 3, Koon 1. Fouled out -- None. Technicals -- None.

*--*