Boys basketball: Sea Kings spoil Quinn’s return

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - In eras past, St. Monica Catholic High boys

basketball coach Chris Quinn, once the symbol of Corona del Mar inside

and spiritual strength under former Coach Paul Orris, shared court time

with Brett Matsen.

Matsen, you see, is a guard for current Sea King Coach Ryan Curry’s

squad, which competed Friday in the opening rounds of the George Yardley

Summer Cage Classic at Newport Harbor High, beginning with a smooth 65-62

morning win over Quinn’s St. Monica Mariners.

“Brett Matsen was our ball boy when I was playing (for CdM),” Quinn

said, an All-CIF Southern Section Division IV selection for the Sea Kings

in 1992-93, when they captured the CIF Division IV-AA championship.

Quinn, also an All-CIF pick in football, couldn’t muscle his team past

Corona del Mar as the Mariners missed a chance at the end to tie the

game, when they couldn’t get off a shot with 0:06 left.

After a timeout, Curry switched his defense from zone to man-to-man,

and, when CdM junior-to-be Adam Freede closely covered St. Monica’s Kyle

Guillary sprinting to the corner for a three-point look, it helped tie up

St. Monica point guard Mike Lloreda, who was smothered by CdM’s Jay

Northridge.

Northridge bottled up Lloreda as time expired and the Sea Kings, who

last year at this point were just shaking hands with first-year coach

Curry, erupted with the faithful like the previous night’s fireworks on

nearby Costa Mesa streets.

Even though it’s the often loosely approached non-game face summer,

this win over St. Monica was big for CdM, which enjoyed a 34-29 halftime

edge, but lost the lead and rallied in the fourth quarter, when the Sea

Kings outscored the Mariners, 20-12.

After a St. Monica foul, Matsen inbounded a sideline pass to 6-foot-3

junior Pancho Seaborn with 1:30 left and the Sea Kings ahead, 60-59.

Seaborn, who led CdM with 26 points, grabbed Matsen’s pass underneath the

basket and scored to provide the Sea Kings with a three-point lead.

“Pancho made a great catch under the basket,” said Curry, who watched

St. Monica cut the lead to one again with 0:24 to play, which was

followed by a missed CdM free throw on the front end of a one-and-one

with 0:21 remaining.

St. Monica rebounded the miss, but on the other end, Matsen stripped

the ball from a point guard and dished a lead pass to Freede, who scored

solo on a layup with 0:06 on the clock, giving Curry’s team another

three-point edge and its margin of victory.

“After that missed free throw, then that steal by Matsen and pass to

Adam, those are the plays that we weren’t able to make last year and now

they’re starting to figure it out,” Curry said. “That wasn’t coaching.

They just did it. You don’t teach miss a free throw, make a steal and

then make a layup.”

Following Seaborn’s 26, which included two early three-pointers to

spark the CdM offense, was Freede (11 points) and Matsen (10).

“Matsen’s the kid who killed us,” said Quinn, whose team last led,

52-50, with 4:30 to play, after outscoring the Sea Kings, 21-11, in the

third quarter to take a 50-45 advantage.

The Mariners, who finished 14-13 last year and reached the CIF

Division IV-AA quarterfinals in Quinn’s first year as head coach, were

led by 6-5 senior Guillary’s 28 points.

“It’s fun for us to get out of Santa Monica and see different styles

of basketball,” said Quinn, who has otherwise enjoyed his return to

Newport Beach.