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.
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