Boys basketball: Tars seeking revenge

Barry Faulkner

NEWPORT BEACH - The Newport Harbor High boys basketball nemesis

tour continues tonight, when the Sailors host No. 3-seeded Villa Park in

a CIF Southern Section Division II-AA second-round playoff game set to

tip off at 7:30.

Having already swept Sea View League rival Woodbridge to claim the

program’s first outright league championship since 1985, Coach Larry

Hirst’s Tars (20-6) are attempting to avenge a 74-61 loss to the Spartans

(25-3) in last year’s CIF Division I-A quarterfinals.

Villa Park also defeated Newport, 59-51, in the Sailors’ George

Yardley Summer Cage Classic in July.

“There won’t be a whole lot of time spent preparing, because both

teams know so much about each other,” Hirst said.

Both coaches acknowledge plenty of similarities.

“It should be a pretty good chess match, because we are pretty similar

teams,” Hirst said. “It could be a very interesting game from a tactical

standpoint, just to see the adjustments made by both staffs and how both

sets of kids will try to interpret those instructions and carry out the

game plan.”

Villa Park Coach Kevin Reynolds, who in his seventh year at the helm

has turned the Spartans into a perennial Orange County power, said he

sees a lot of his team in the Sailors.

“We’re mirror images,” Reynolds said. “I think it will be a matter of

who will show up and play well, because we’re very similar. Both (the

Sailors) and ourselves tend to beat teams up with our size inside, so

this will be a nice challenge.”

The Spartans, champions of the Century League, have beaten teams up

with greater consistency than the Tars. Villa Park’s average margin of

victory has been nearly 21 points, including a 79-46 first-round

trouncing of Chaparral Friday.

The Spartans’s three losses have come to Capistrano Valley, Mater Dei

and Century rival El Modena. They are on a seven-game winning streak.

The Sailors, only the fourth Newport team in 72 varsity seasons to

reach the 20-win plateau, are trying to join last year’s squad as one of

only four Harbor teams to notch two postseason wins.

Villa Park’s weapons include 6-foot-8 senior center Brice Prather, 6-9

junior Sean Phaler, 6-2 junior point guard Corey Miller and 6-5 junior

swing man Kyle Hogan.

Prather is averaging 18.3 points and around nine rebounds per game,

while Phaler, who has 146 three-pointers this season, is chipping in 17.9

points and around eight rebounds per contest.

Miller, leading the county at more than eight assists per game,

averages nearly eight points, while Hogan averages 10 points, nearly

eight rebounds and close to five assists per outing.

“We think Hogan could be the X factor,” Hirst said.

Newport is keyed by 6-6 returning All-CIF veteran Tony Melum, who has

scored 59 points the last two games to up his scoring average to 22 per

game. He followed a 26-point, 13-rebound performance in the

league-title-clinching win over Woodbridge by collecting 33 points (15 of

20 field-goal shooting), eight rebounds, seven assists and two blocked

shots in a 79-68 first-round win over Loara Friday.

Melum is just 45 points from tying the school single-season scoring

record of 618 points, set by Justin McIntee in 1991-92.

Senior point guard Greg Perrine is another three-year varsity standout

for the Sailors. Since returning after tearing his ACL in the summer, he

is averaging 10.3 points and providing the floor leadership Hirst counts

upon him for.

Erik Peterson, a 6-3 senior, chips in 9 ppg and is also the teams

leading defender, while 6-8 junior Nedim Pajevic, averaging 7.8 ppg and

is coming off a 14-point, 15-rebound effort against Loara.

Jaime Diefenbach, a 6-8 sophomore, could also be crucial for the Tars,

while junior starting guard Chase Cameron and sophomore backcourt reserve

Andre Pinesett round out Hirst’s primary rotation.

Reynolds identified rebounding as the key to his team’s success and

also noted his 10-deep rotation, including sophomore Lloyd Cotton, junior

Chris Selinsky and senior Brian Beisner, as another potential advantage

for the Spartans.

Hirst hopes a jampacked home gym (spectators are advised to arrive

early as not to be turned away) will provide an emotional edge. But

Reynolds points out, his team won all four Yardley tournament games at

Newport last summer.

“We feel great going in there,” Reynolds said, “The last time we where

there, we beat Newport in the semifinals and Mater Dei in the final.”

Tonight’s winner advances to Friday’s quarterfinals, against either

Moorpark (18-9) or Inglewood (22-5).