Sea View League : Newport Gets By Sea Kings

There was a time when Newport Harbor High School’s basketball players would have done just about anything to beat rival Corona del Mar. For seven years, the Sailors failed to gain a win in the not-so-friendly rivalry that is more popularly known as, “The Battle of the Bay.”

After Newport Harbor Coach Jerry DeBusk finally broke the jinx with a win over the Sea Kings and Coach Jack Errion in 1983, he proclaimed, “I thought he owned me for a while. He could have started walking me around like a dog.”

Those days seemed so long ago on Friday night. The Sailors pounded the once unbeatable Sea Kings, 73-50, in the Sea View League opener for both schools and sent a message to league favorite Estancia in the process.

The Sailors shot 69% in the first half and rolled to 42-26 halftime lead. It could have been much worse, but Corona del Mar’s Jeff Fryer kept the Sea Kings in the game by scoring 15 points in the first half.

Fryer finished with 23 points, but he was overshadowed by Newport Harbor’s Chuck McGavran and Rob Mase in the one-sided game. McGavran made 9 of 16 field goal attempts and Mase was 7 of 9 from the field. They missed only 1 free throw in 12 attempts.

Corona del Mar (8-4) managed to stay close in the first quarter, thanks to a pair of three-point plays by Fryer and Bob Zimmer. The teams were tied, 22-22, early in the second quarter when the Sailors went on a tear. Newport Harbor (10-2) outscored the Sea Kings, 20-4, for the remainder of the half and the game, for all intents and purposes, was over.

“I’m not surprised that they played that well,” Errion said. “They have good personnel and they don’t have a weakness anywhere. I thought we played hard and I don’t have any criticism of our play. A lot of the shots were normally make didn’t go in tonight.”

The Sea Kings made only 22 of 63 shots (35%) and Fryer cooled off considerably after a great first quarter. The junior scored 11 points in the first quarter, but made only 5 of 16 attempts the remainder of the game.

“I thought McGavran and Fryer put on a great shooting exhibition in the first half,” DeBusk said. “Depth finally won out. The tempo was great . . . it was advantageous with our depth. We’ve been playing in Carson City at 5,000 feet, so it was a welcome relief to be at home at sea level.”

DeBusk honestly expected a close game. And why not? The teams played a five-overtime game several years ago and Corona del Mar won in overtime last year. When they met this summer, the game went into an extra period.

“This is the biggest spread that I know of since Jack and I have been playing against each other,” DeBusk said. “We were stronger inside and stronger at the end of the game.”

DeBusk utilized 11 players and all but two of them scored. Fryer looked like a one-man team offensively and the Sea Kings’ man-to-man defense was suspect at times.