Corona del Mar sails into the finals

Joseph Boo

LA HABRA - At the start of the game, Corona del Mar High’s Alec

Hanson shot 1 for 7 from the field. At the end of the game, he hit his

fourth three-pointer with 33 seconds left to propel the Sea Kings to a

63-58 boys basketball win over Warren in the Sonora Cage Classic

semifinals Friday at Sonora High.

“Alec was stone cold for the first two and a half quarters,” CdM Coach

Paul Orris said. “But we believed in his abilities. If you don’t believe,

90% of the game is lost. We knew he is one of our scorers.”

Hanson scored a season-high 20 points, all in the second half, and fellow

senior Kevin Hansen scored a career-high 30 points to catapult the Sea

Kings (7-2) into tonight’s championship game against Freemont at 7:30.

The Sea Kings needed both of their big scorers to hit their shots,

because Warren shot 70% in the second quarter to take a 29-24 lead,

hitting 4 of 5 three-pointers.

Hansen had 17 in the first half, to single-handedly keep his team from

falling too far behind.

Warren extended the lead to nine in the third quarter, where it made 3 of

6 three-pointers. CdM closed the lead to six at the end of the third

quarter, when Hanson hit his first three-point attempt. But Warren

responded with three to keep CdM at bay.

Warren couldn’t keep up its hot shooting in the fourth quarter, and a

determined CdM team took advantage.

CdM made half its six fourth-quarter field-goal attempts, but sank all 12

foul shots in the period.

Joe Templeton tied the game for CdM with two free throws with 3:46 left,

and a soft jumper by Hansen on CdM’s next possession gave them the Sea

Kings the lead.

Warren tied it with a layup, but Hansen put CdM up again with a three.

Warren’s Aaron Hobbensiefken immediately tied the game with his own

three-pointer.

But Hanson answered with his fourth three-pointer, then sealed the win

with two free throws.

“We played pretty good defense,” Orris said. “We hung around and hung

around and we didn’t go belly up, when we were down by nine. We started

hitting shots and good things started to happen. Our team showed a great

deal of character tonight.”

HIGH SCHOOL BOYS

Sonora Cage Classic

Corona del Mar 63, Warren 58

Score by Quarters

Warren 11 18 17 12 - 58 Corona del Mar 12 12 14 25 - 63

Warren - Williams 21, Assidey 9, Hobbensiefken 10, Fairweather 2,

Djokovic 8, Dana 5, Gardner 3, Shull 0.

3-pt. goals - Williams 5, Hoffensiefken 2, Assidey 1, Dana 1.

Fouled out - None.

Technicals - None.

Corona del Mar - Hansen 30, Hanson 20, Templeton 8, Hietbrink 3, Snell 2,

Shahangian 0.

3-pt. goals - Hanson 4, Hansen 1.

Fouled out - None.

Technicals - None.