Boys’ Basketball: Sea Kings open league with rout

IRVINE — For the second time in four days, the Corona del Mar High boys’ basketball team gave up 18 first-quarter points. And CdM Coach Ryan Schachter was livid.

In two of the biggest games of the season, Tuesday’s Battle of the Bay at rival Newport Harbor and Friday’s Pacific Coast League opener at Woodbridge, the Sea Kings couldn’t guard anyone and they fell behind early.

“I haven’t been that mad in a couple of years,” said Schachter, who called a timeout with about 1½ minutes left in the opening quarter, chewing out his team for its lack of defensive effort and for trailing by seven points. “We messed up on our [defensive] switches. We were lazy is what it was.”

Out of the timeout, CdM responded. After allowing 18 points to Woodbridge in the first eight minutes, the Warriors only managed to score a combined 13 points in the next 16 minutes.

The Sea Kings turned it on defensively, as well as offensively, en route to 74-44 blowout win.

What was supposed to be a competitive game turned into an easy night for CdM (13-4, 1-0 in league), ranked No. 2 in the CIF Southern Section Division 3A poll, after three quarters.

The Warriors (11-6, 0-1) never threatened the defending league champion Sea Kings after Schachter put Taeveon Le on the Warriors’ top outside threat, Ty Calhoun, who made each of his three shots from behind the arc in the first quarter.

Le went wherever Calhoun went, and slowed him down the rest of the way. Calhoun made only two of seven shots after the first quarter, finishing with 15 points, all of a result of five three-pointers.

Le and Matt Ctvrtlik and began knocking down the three-point shot. Ctvrtlik, who finished with 16 points, hit three of his four three-pointers in the third quarter, and Le (15 points, 11 rebounds and two steals) added one of his three threes in the third.

The Sea Kings couldn’t miss in the third quarter. They made 10 of 13 field goals and went five of six from three-point range in the third, taking a 58-31 lead.

“We’re not 30 points better than them, you know, on most nights,” Schachter of the Warriors. “We hit a bunch of threes.”

The Sea Kings finished with 11 three-pointers, shooting the long ball at a 52.3% clip. Eight of those threes came on 14 attempts in the second half, helping CdM put the game away in the third quarter, outscoring Woodbridge, 25-7.

Dating back to the 2013-14 season, CdM has won 12 straight league games. Out of those dozen victories, Friday’s has been the most lopsided.

The Sea Kings beat Woodbridge for the 10th time in 11 tries since the Warriors joined the Pacific Coast League in 2010-11.

Hurting the Warriors’ chances of keeping up with CdM after the first quarter was seeing two starters, 6-foot-5 Lucas Barron and 6-3 Vik Ghadi, pick up three fouls apiece in the first half.

“What happened was the whistle was blowing a heck of a lot against guys in [Woodbridge] jerseys,” Woodbridge Coach John Halagan said. “When my two biggest bigs get three quick fouls, with Corona del Mar’s length, we had to throw a lot of resources into the paint to try and wall that off, and they beat us over the top. They made 11 threes. It’s tough to cover because they’re long and they’re skilled.”

The Sea Kings’ size and talent was there, what Schachter said was missing was their desire on the defensive end. Schachter let them know by yelling at them during the game’s first timeout.

“He just told us to pick it up, just give effort,” Le said. “He saw that we weren’t competing.”

Schachter fired CdM up when it trailed, 18-11. The Sea Kings scored the final five points in the first quarter. Le converted two free throws, and then with the quarter about to expire, the 6-4 sophomore drove toward the baseline and found a wide-open Ben Coffman in the corner, where Coffman nailed a three-pointer.

The momentum stayed with CdM, which took its first lead after Sam Kobrine came up with a steal and went in for a layup two minutes into the second quarter. Kobrine was the same player who gave CdM its first lead against Newport Harbor three nights ago, draining a game-winning three-pointer with seven seconds left to propel the Sea Kings to a 51-48 come-from-behind win.

Kobrine closed out the first half in style against Woodbridge. The senior guard stole the ball and raced in for a two-handed dunk, as the Sea Kings headed into halftime on an 11-2 run.

“Going into the season, my biggest question was how mentally tough was this team,” said Schachter, whose team held Woodbridge to eight-of-38 shooting in the final three quarters. “They’re a lot of tougher than I’m giving them credit for right now.”

“They were going to give me a heart attack in the first quarter.”

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Pacific Coast League

Corona del Mar 74, Woodbridge 44

SCORE BY QUARTERS

CdM 16 – 17 – 25 – 16 — 74

Woodbridge 18 – 6 – 7 – 13— 44

CdM – Ctvrtlik 16, Le 15, Kobrine 8, Haly 8, Rodman 7, Schwartz 6, Borquez 4, Baran-Maguire 4, Coffman 3, Johnson 3.

3-pt. goals – Ctvrtlik 4, Le 3, Coffman 1, Rodman 1, Schwartz 1, Johnson 1.

Fouled out – None.

Technicals – None.

WB – Calhoun 15, Coloma 11, Rausch 9, Ghadi 4, Lomboy 3, Hooshmand 2.

3-pt. goals – Calhoun 5, Lomboy 1, Rausch 1.

Fouled out – None.

Technicals – None.