Boys basketball: Newport Harbor hammers Irvine

Tony Altobelli

IRVINE - “One down three to go.”

For Newport Harbor High boys basketball coach Larry Hirst, it’s come down

to a checklist of games and on Friday night, Irvine was scratched off the

list, soundly, in a 70-48 Sea View League win.

“We keep telling the kids that we have to take them one game at a time,”

the ever-original Hirst said. “Tonight, we worked hard and got the job

done.”

Aaron Yarnal led the Sailors, ranked No. 10 in CIF Division III-AA, with

21 points, while Dustin Illingworth added 19 points and 10 rebounds.

Picking up his offense on Friday was sophomore Tony Melum, who chipped in

with 16 points and nine boards.

“It’s nice to see different people step up for us,” Hirst said. “Last

game, it was Sean Rorden and tonight, it was Tony.”

Newport 16-6 overall, remains in the driver’s seat atop the Sea View

League at 5-0.

The Sailors led from start to finish and took control of the game early.

Leading by two midway through the first quarter, Newport went on a 15-1

run and led, 27-11, by the midway point of the second quarter and never

looked back.

Yarnal and Illingworth led the way, scoring 22 of the Sailors’ 33

first-half points.

Irvine (5-17, 0-5) had no answer for Newport’s swarming, switching

defense, which caused 11 first-half turnovers, which led to some easy

baskets for Newport.

“We tried to run a lot of switches on them,” Hirst said. “We looked at

the tapes from the last time we played them and we saw that they had a

lot of open shots. We didn’t want that to happen tonight.”

Andrew Rosshart, limited by foul trouble in the first half, led the

Vaqueros with 14 points, while Brady Davis and Chad Hazlett each had

11.SEA VIEW LEAGUE

Newport Harbor 70, Irvine 48

Score by Quarters

Newport Harbor 19 14 18 19 - 70

Irvine 10 11 16 11 - 48

Newport Harbor - Yarnal 21, Illingworth 19, Melum 16, Perrine 7, Spigner

3, Ready 2, Knutti 2, Rorden 0, Redoutey 0, Cook 0, Reynolds 0, Martin 0,

Murray 0.

3 pt. goals - Yarnal 4.

Fouled out - None.

Irvine - Rosshart 14, Davis 11, Hazlett 11, Devries 5, Guinn 3, Patton 2,

Spear 2.

3 pt. goals - Rosshart 2, Davis 1, Guinn 1, Hazlett 1.

Fouled out - None.