Boys basketball: CdM’s first step a dousy

Barry Faulkner

CORONA DEL MAR - An early season Back Bay boys basketball battle

created by scheduling irregularities, turned out to be an anomaly for the

ages Thursday at Corona del Mar High.

Visiting Newport Harbor, with a cohesive summer, fall and opening game

under its belt, came away with a 76-33 victory, by far the largest margin

in the 60-game series.

CdM, with only a handful of practices with its entire 13-player roster (including summer and fall), showed its collective inexperience. Despite

the lopsided loss, Coach Paul Orris believes his Sea Kings can learn

plenty from stumbling out of the gate, directly into a buzz saw.

The biggest previous scoring differential between the neighboring

schools was Harbor’s 74-40 triumph to christen the series in 1964. CdM

leads the series, 36-24, but Harbor has won seven of the last eight,

including four straight at CdM.

The former Sea View League rivals (CdM moved into the Pacific Coast

League last season) hoped to play in January, as they did last season.

But they couldn’t find a matching hole in their schedules, leaving the

opening week the only alternative.

Orris and Newport Harbor Coach Larry Hirst agreed they will not play

this early again.

Newport, coming off a 73-52 thumping of Huntington Beach Tuesday, had

a few mistakes to iron out. And Hirst said he was pleased by his teams

much better offensive execution and rebounding.

The Tars (2-0) put together strong spurts in each quarter and never

tailed. An 8-0 first-quarter run set the tone and a 7-2 second-quarter

burst helped open a 32-18 halftime lead.

The second half was all Harbor, as the visitors hit 16 of 32

field-goal attempts, while CdM connected on only 4 of 21.

Newport senior guard Aaron Yarnal drilled four three-pointers en route

to a game-high 21 points, while 6-foot-6 junior center Tony Melum had

nine of his 13 points in the first quarter.

Jamie Diefenbach, a 6-7 freshman making his second varsity start, had

eight of his 10 points in the third quarter.

The Sea Kings also committed 16 turnovers, to the Sailors’ nine.

“This was a step up on our behalf,” Hirst said. “But, to (the Sea

Kings’) credit, you could tell they were a step off and a little out of

sync.”

Said Orris, “This game showed us what we need to do to compete with

very good teams. But I would have preferred to have eased into (the

season).”

Seniors Eric Snell and Charlie Alshuler paced the hosts with six

points apiece.

NONLEAGUE

Newport Harbor 76, Corona del Mar 33

Score by Quarters

Newport Harbor 16 16 21 23 - 76

Corona del Mar 7 11 7 8 - 33

Newport Harbor - Yarnal 21, Melum 13, Diefenbach 10, Perrine 9,

Cameron 8, Young 7, Spigner 4, Peterson 2, Pajevic 2, Hill 0.

3-pt. goals - Yarnal 4, Cameron 2, Young 2, Melum 1.

Fouled out - None.

Technicals - None.

Corona del Mar - Snell 6, Alshuler 6, Shahangian 4, Brewster 4, K.

Mancillas 4, Marston 3, Glass 2, B. Mancillas 2, Reynolds 1, Bowlus 1,

Grey 0, Richardson 0.

3-pt. goals - K. Mancillas 1.

Fouled out - None.

Technicals - None.