Sunset League : Fountain Valley Gets Worst Of It

Sweat trickled down Brent Martin’s cheeks. Damp clumps of hair sagged on his forehead. He had a knee support on his left leg, a nasty slice on his right eyelid, and five fouls next to his name in the scorebook.

For Martin, along with the rest of the Fountain Valley High School basketball team on Friday night, that wasn’t even the worst of it.

This was the really bad part: the defending champion Barons (3-3, 11-8) were virtually eliminated from contention for the Sunset League title Friday.

They lost to league-leading Ocean View (6-0, 17-3) at Fountain Valley, 56-3 8, in a game that made the word “physical” seem a polite euphemism.

How physical was it?

For two such polished teams, it featured some of the most futile and misguided shooting of the season. In the first half, the Barons shot 21% (4 of 19) and the Seahawks shot 33% (8 of 24).

Consequently, the halftime was Ocean View 20, Fountain Valley 13, which prompted some fans to take up an accusatory chant of “B-o-o-ring . . . boring.”

But actually, for connoisseurs of defense, the first half wasn’t so dull. In fact it was enlivened by a rash of turnovers, but turnovers so contagious that their effect on the scoreboard was hardly apparent after the first five minutes.

The Seahawks opened by pinning selected Barons in a fullcourt trap. That strategy worked very nicely, and Ocean View catapulted to a 10-0 lead in the first 2:45 of the game behind three baskets by forward Dave Straight and a pair by guard Mike Labat.

Everyone was thinking, poor Fountain Valley, it couldn’t score at all until 4:23 had elapsed, and the Barons didn’t make a shot from the floor until Martin hit a jumper after 5:12 was gone.

Then, a strange thing occurred. It was as if somebody had instituted the identical scoring freeze on Ocean View. The Seahawks, who managed scarcely any offensive rebounds, failed to score for the next seven-and-a-half minutes. It was truly hard to believe.

Meanwhile, Martin chipped away at the faltering Seahawks, and guard Carlos Briceno tied the game at 10-10 with 5:40 left in the second quarter. Finally, Ocean View snapped out of the offensive trance on Straight’s retaliatory fast break to give the Seahawks a 12-10 advantage, which they never relinquished.

Sunset League

League Overall School W L W L Ocean View 6 0 17 4 Edison 5 1 13 6 Fountain Valley 3 3 11 8 Marina 2 4 10 11 Huntington Bch 2 4 7 10 Westminster 0 6 3 14

“It was just the style of the game that we couldn’t get any rhythm going,” said Seahawk Coach Jim Harris “Who knew what was going to happen? But (we) played great defense and didn’t let it get out of control.”

Throughout the game, the 6-7 Martin engaged the Seahawks’ 6-6 center, sophomore Ricky Butler, in a slam-dance for position under the basket. It was such an even matchup that each team usually sent another player to cruise the neighborhood for inside support.

“It was like they had three guys on me,” Martin said. “I kept turning around and seeing these three faces, and there’s not much I could do. Everytime we play Ocean View it’s a very physical game.”

Martin had suffered a cut eyelid in a collision with teammate Lance Zeno’s hip in Monday’s practice. He wore an eye patch during Friday’s first half, but removed it after finding it interfered with his perception of passes. In contrast to the school-record 39 points he scored in last Friday’s game, he had only 12 points when he fouled out with 3:24 left.

Briceno was the game’s leading scorer with 14 points, while Labat had 13 and the Seahawks’ Blaine DeBrouwer and Straight each added 12. The Seahawks’ one-handed free-throw technique was particularly effective Friday, as the team made 75% of its shots at the line (18 of 24).

OCEAN VIEW (56)--Panzica 6, Straight 12, Butler 4, Labat 13, DeBrouwer 12, Flynn 4, Hocker 5.

FOUNTAIN VALLEY (38)--Emerson 6, Briceno 14, Martin 12, L. Zeno 4, E. Zeno 2.