Sea Kings cruise into break, 52-35

Barry Faulkner

CORONA DEL MAR - The Corona del Mar High boys basketball team

needed a little extra incentive Monday against struggling nonleague

visitor Saddleback and veteran coach Paul Orris was happy to oblige.

“I called an early timeout and growled at them a little bit,” said Orris,

whose Sea Kings responded with a 52-35 triumph to finalize their

pre-Christmas record at 8-3.

“Sometimes it’s hard to play with a great deal of intensity, when you

think you’re better than the opponent, and you are,” Orris said after

victory No. 202 of his 14-year varsity coaching reign. “It wasn’t that we

were doing things wrong (during a first quarter which ended with an 8-6

CdM lead), but we didn’t have the kind of intensity and focus I like.”

The hosts snapped to in the second period, outscoring the Roadrunners,

22-6, to take an 18-point cushion into intermission.

“I set a goal for us to keep them in single digits in every quarter and

we did that until things got a little sloppy in the fourth quarter,”

Orris said. “It was nice to have a game like this, where I could use some

different lineups and get everyone some playing time.”

The Sea Kings will use less than their best lineup until late in the

league season, having lost senior starter Brooks Morris, who averaged

12.7 points per game before breaking his left, shooting, wrist Dec. 13

against La Mirada.

“He’s out about seven weeks, which means we’re hoping to get him back for

the last two or three (Pacific Coast League) games,” Orris said.

“(Senior) Judd Hietbrink is starting in his place and while we may give

up something offensively, we may gain a little defensively.”

Whatever offensive void Morris’ absence may have created, senior guards

Kevin Hansen and Alec Hanson appear capable of filling.

Hansen, a returning second-team All-CIF performer, continued his red-hot

pace of late, scoring a game-high 27 Monday. Hansen, who missed three

early season games with the flu, has averaged 26.3 points his last four

games.

“He’s something,” Orris said. “(Sonora Coach) Mike Murphy said he was

head and shoulders the best player in their tournament last week.”

Hanson chipped in 11 points, his eighth game this season in double

figures to match his best friend and namesake.

Junior defensive wizard Eric Snell added six points for the winners, who

have pleased Orris with their play thus far.

“The Warren Coach (Kevin Hobbinsiefken) told me the other night, after we

handed them their first loss, that all our players seem to know their

roles and are performing those roles very capably,” Orris said. “That

made me feel pretty good. We’ve been playing against a pretty high level

of competition and we’re having success. We still have things to work on,

but I like where we are. As long as we can keep improving, every day, we

should be all right.”

The Sea Kings return to action Dec. 27 in Estancia’s Coast Christmas

Classic.

HIGH SCHOOL BOYS

Nonleague

Corona del Mar 52, Saddleback 35

Score by Quarters

Saddleback 6 6 6 17 - 35

Corona del Mar 8 22 13 9 - 52

Saddleback - Pedrosa 6, Isais 4, R. Gonzalez 9, Romeo 4, J. Gonzalez 8,

Higareda 4.

3-pt. goals - None.

Fouled out - None.

Technicals - None.

Corona del Mar - Hansen 27, Hanson 11, Snell 6, Bottom 4, Shahangian 2,

Heitbrink 2, Templeton 0, Owen 0.

3-pt. goals - Hansen 2, Hanson 1.

Fouled out - None.

Technicals - None.