Boys basketball: Big week for Sailors

Barry Faulkner

With apologies to Hemingway’s fictitious fisherman, Dave Brown is

the Old Man and the Sea (View League).

For while the Laguna Hills High basketball program Brown coaches is in

just its third season in the five-team circuit that includes Newport

Harbor, the venerable veteran’s more than 30 seasons on Orange County

sidelines have produced more than 500 victories and an immeasurable

amount of respect from his peers.

Newport Harbor Coach Larry Hirst, who competed as an Edison High

player and coach against Brown’s teams at Fountain Valley, where Brown

spent nealry two decades before nesting with the Hawks, is among those

who realize any game against Laguna Hills is a battle to not get

outcoached.

Hirst and his Sailors will attempt to deal with that challenge at

Laguna Hills Wednesday at 7 p.m., before hosting Woodbridge Friday in an

expected showdown of league unbeatens.

“We’ve talked about Woodbridge since we started weight training last

spring,” Hirst said. “That’s a game our kids have circled on the

calendar. But I sure hope our guys remember they have to come ready to

play Wednesday, because Laguna Hills is a team you can’t overlook.

“(Brown) has been doing this so long, nothing surprises him. Every now

and then, you can work a gadget play or use a junk defense against

someone, but Dave has seen it all. There is nothing he hasn’t seen or

coached against and his teams are always very well prepared and

fundamentally sound. When I think of Dave Brown teams, I think of

offensive execution.”

The Sailors executed perhaps as well as they have all season in

Friday’s 87-37 romp over visiting Irvine. The victory followed a

heart-stopping one-point triumph Wednesday at Aliso Niguel to open league

play.

Newport (14-5, 2-0 in league), ranked No. 8 in last week’s Orange

County poll, made 11 of 19 three-point attempts (nearly 58%) against

Irvine. This, combined with a smothering defense that blocked 14 Vaquero

shots, helped produce the best single-game offensive output in Harbor’s

last 88 games.

Points should be less abundant against Laguna Hills, which has held

the Tars to an average of 51 points in four league meetings, three of

which were won by the Sailors, including a pair of 59-50 wins last

season.

The Sailors are led by 6-6 senior All-CIF forward Tony Melum (22

points per game), senior point guard Greg Perrine (8.7 ppg, but just more

than twice that in league), and senior forward Erik Peterson (9.7 ppg).

Woodbridge (13-6, 2-0), ranked No. 4 in the county last week, is

looking to rebound from a 56-48 nonleague loss to crosstown Northwood

Saturday.

Coach John Halagan’s Warriors played without senior point guard

Patrick Hadden (16.5 ppg) against Northwood. The status of his return

from an ankle injury sustained in Friday’s 52-41 league win over Laguna

Hills is unclear.

Woodbridge is also keyed by 6-10 sophomore David Burgess, senior

guards Cole Edmondson and Sandeep Hingorani, as well as junior

sharpshooter Mike Nicoll.

Newport has lost three straight to Woodbridge.

Meanwhile in the Pacific Coast League: Costa Mesa (11-7, 0-2) hopes to

bounce back from a rough start with dates at crosstown rival Estancia

(Wednesday) and Corona del Mar (Friday).

Coach Bob Serven’s Mustangs swept Estancia last year and have won 3 of

4 from the Eagles, after Estancia built a 30-game winning streak over

Mesa from 1982 to 1999.

With a pair of victories, the Mustangs would close on Laguna Beach and

Estancia, which are tied for third with 1-1 records, behind league

co-leaders Northwood and University (both 2-0).

Estancia (10-8), which defeated CdM Friday, 62-53, is at Laguna Beach

Friday, while CdM (4-15), which has lost 11 of its last 12, hosts Uni

Wednesday.

Sage Hill, competing in the Academy League, is at St. Margaret’s

tonight, before hosting Oxford Academy Thursday.