Breakers stretch win streak to 11

Eleven in a row.

That’s where the winning streak stood going into Thursday’s game for the Laguna Beach High boys’ basketball team.

Last week saw the Breaker boys pick up a nonleague victory and tournament title.

Tuesday night at Dugger Gymnasium, Laguna routed visiting Dana Hills, 62-42 in nonleague play. The Breakers, who improved to 11-1, took a 39-28 halftime lead then put the game away by outscoring the Dolphins, 17-3, in the third quarter.

Senior guard Cheyne Martin led Laguna in scoring with 20 points. Brian Delino had 17 points and Ryan Lawler collected eight rebounds.

Laguna has not lost since a 71-51 season-opening setback to St. John Bosco on Nov. 27.

“The kids are playing really hard,” Laguna Coach Bret Fleming said. “They seem to be grasping the concept of defending people. We’re playing really good defense and I think that has a lot to do with our success so far.”

On Saturday, the Breakers captured thechampionship of the Orange Coast Optimist Tournament by defeating Torrance, 68-61, at Garden Grove High.

Laguna rallied to the title by coming up with a big second half performance that wiped out a 43-33 halftime deficit.

The Breakers and Torrance each entered the game with 9-1 records.

Martin poured in a game-high 36 points and was named MVP of the tournament. Delino was also named all-tournament.

In the semifinal round of the tournament’s gold bracket, Laguna again used a big second-half effort, this one resulting in a 65-53 win over Lawndale. The Breakers outscored the Cardinals — who, like Torrance, suffered just their second loss in 11 games — by eight points in the second half to pull away.

Martin again led the scoring surge with 27 points. Marcus Hairston had 11 points and Delino added nine for the Breakers.

Laguna began the tournament by defeating Sunny Hills, 60-44. Next, the Breakers routed Garden Grove, 68-34. Martin finished with 26 points and Lawler had 11 in the win over the host Argonauts.

The Breakers picked up their third tournament win with a 74-64 triumph over Cypress in quarterfinal action. In that game, Martin connected on five three-point shots and finished with a school-record 47 points.

His output bettered the school’s previous single-game mark of 46 scored by Josh Borella in 1991. Fleming also coached Borella in that outing.

Martin is currently among the CIF scoring leaders with 367 points and a 30.6 points-per-game average.

But the Breakers could be without Martin for the next few games. The senior broke a finger on his left hand going after a loose ball early in the fourth quarter of Tuesday’s win over Dana Hills.

“It’s dislocated and he has a chip on the bone,” Fleming said. “We’ll have to wait and see how it goes for him.

“Cheyne has had a great start to the season and so has everyone else on this team. Everybody is contributing and our 11-1 start has really been a team effort. The kids are really playing well within their roles.”

The Breakers took on Huntington Beach on Thursday in the Orange County North-South Challenge at El Toro High. The score was not available at press time.

On Tuesday, they begin play in the Century holiday tournament in Santa Ana with a first-round 8 p.m. matchup against Riverside Poly.

In girls’ basketball:

Laguna Beach continued play Tuesday at the Ocean View Holiday Classic and dropped a 74-41 decision to Western to drop to 0-8 on the season.

Brittany Clark scored 17 points to go along with 14 rebounds, eight blocks, eight steals and three assists, and Katie Daff scored 18 points with six rebounds and two steals.

The 41 points scored by the Breakers was a season best.

“That’s the big bright spot from that game,” Laguna Coach Keith Clarkson said. “Brittany and Katie had big games, too. We’re happy to see our point total rise.”

Laguna began the Ocean View tournament with a 68-18 loss to Dana Hills.

Previous to playing in the Ocean View Tournament, the Breakers closed out play in the Segerstrom Tournament with losses to Saddleback (64-10) and Trabuco Hills (66-28).

The Breakers played Fountain Valley on Thursday in the final game of the Ocean View Tournament and will play Newport Harbor at 6 p.m. today in nonleague action.

Beginning Tuesday, they open play at the Garden Grove Tournament. Their first-round game is at 3 p.m. against Orange.

“Our first goal was to up our point total each game, and we’re beginning to do that,” Clarkson said. “Our next goal is to defend and rebound better. We’re working toward getting to that point, too.”