CdM loses at the buzzer
Steve Virgen
The Corona del Mar High boys basketball team, not known for its
height, played big in coming back from a 20-4 deficit.
But, the Sea Kings came up short when Huntington Beach junior
Brandon McLaughlin scored after an offensive rebound, just beating
the buzzer to give the Oilers a 41-40 victory in the quarterfinals of
the La Quinta Aztec Classic Wednesday at La Quinta.
CdM (1-2) earned its first lead of the game, 37-36, with 4:53
remaining, after Pancho Seaborn hit a pair of free throws. Seaborn, a
6-foot-3 junior, scored a team-high 13 points.
After Seaborn’s free throws, Huntington Beach answered with a
three-pointer regain its lead, 39-37, with 2:55 left. Then, later
with 10 seconds remaining, CdM senior Kevin Mancillas lulled his
defender with a soft dribble, and suddenly nailed a three-pointer for
a 40-39 Sea King lead, that prompted an Oiler timeout.
The game clock was showing seven seconds, but a referee put two
seconds back because the clock continued to run after the timeout was
called.
Huntington Beach tried to create an isolation play for James
Bailey, who scored all 15 of his points in the first half. But Bailey
was forced into a running 8-foot shot, that went off the rim, caromed
off the backboard, and was tipped by a Sea King, until McLaughlin
grabbed the ball out of the air and went with a power layup to beat
the buzzer.
There was some confusion as to whether the shot was good at the
end, but the officials signaled the basket was good more than once
for clarification.
“(The officials) said (the Oilers) beat the buzzer, and that’s the
way I thought, too,” CdM Coach Ryan Curry said. “And (the officials)
go by the sound. I thought he grabbed it and put it in before the
buzzer.”
Curry also said he took pride in the fact that the Sea Kings came
back from a 16-point deficit, but he hoped his players hurt after the
game, because he was hurting. He reminded his team to never give up
in a postgame meeting.
“Size isn’t a factor against us,” Curry said. “That’s what I told
them. We’ll play big teams, but we can negate that. Our post
defenders play really hard. Our guards drop down. We can negate
teams’ height. So, the equalizer becomes, do we block out and
rebound?”
The Sea Kings scored only four points in the first quarter,
including just one shot from the field, a mid-range jump shot by
Brett Matsen. Then the Oilers opened the second period with a 7-0 run
to gain the 20-4 lead. However, Seaborn nailed a three-pointer that
started a 13-4 run to close out the first half. Seaborn scored eight
points in the spurt, including two three-pointers, the latter with 47
seconds left that brought the deficit to 24-17. CdM guard Jay
Northridge, who scored 11 points, was also instrumental in the
comeback.
CdM came to within, 33-32, at the end of the third after Matsen
hit two free throws with 1:21 left in the quarter.
The Sea Kings will play in a consolation quarterfinal Friday at
3:30 p.m. against Calvary Chapel of Santa Ana at La Quinta.
La Quinta Aztec Classic
Quarterfinals
Huntington Beach 41, CdM 40
Htn. Beach 13 11 9
8 -- 41
CdM 4 13 15
8 -- 40
Huntington Beach -- Van Voorhis 8, McLaughlin 6,
Sellberg 2, Bailey 15, Wood 2, Abando 6, Silva 2.
3-pt. goals -- Bailey 3, Van Voorhis 2, Abando 2.
Fouled out -- none.
Corona del Mar -- Sherick-Odom 0, Seaborn 13, Mancillas 9, Matsen
7, Northridge 11, B. Welch 0, Freede 0.
3-pt. goals -- Seaborn 3, Mancillas 3, Matsen 1, Northridge 1.
Fouled out -- none.
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