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.