Second-half blues

Bryce Alderton

A tale of two halves.

Corona del Mar High’s boys basketball team’s first half wasn’t

enough to counter Servite’s second-half surge, as the Friars put 48

points on the board in the final two quarters to the Sea Kings’ 19 to

run to a 72-52 nonleague win at Servite High Monday.

CdM (3-7) lost its fourth consecutive game -- and its shooting

touch -- that produced a 34-25 lead at halftime.

“They extended their defense in the half court and made us speed

up play,” said Sea King Coach Ryan Curry. “We don’t play well at a

faster speed and couldn’t stay with them.”

The Sea Kings were successful in the first half running the

half-court offense. Players cut toward the basket on back screens and

teammates found them for layups. Those types of plays didn’t occur as

frequently in the second half.

“We got good looks but missed some layups and before we knew it

they got rolling,” Curry said.

Corona vaulted to a nine-point halftime lead after leading, 13-11,

at the end of one quarter.

Senior Kevin Mancillas and junior Pancho Seaborn hit two layups to

start the third quarter as CdM built its biggest lead, 37-25, with

7:18 left in the period. The Sea Kings didn’t hit a field goal the

rest of the quarter, getting three free throws from Bart Welch and

one from Jay Northridge, who finished with 10 points, nine coming in

the first half.

The Friars shot 50% (5 of 10) from behind the arc in the second

half, getting three treys from Brian Traska, who finished with 15

points. Traska hit on 5 of 14 three-point attempts, the only shots he

tried for the game.

Servite received productive bench play from senior guard Brian

Yujuico, who shot 6 for 7 from the field for 19 points, along with

6-foot-6 freshman Blake Wallace’s 17 points on a 6-for-10 shooting

effort.

“We didn’t defend well on the perimeter and they got easy looks

inside,” Curry said.

Wallace came alive in the fourth quarter, posting up Sea King

defenders and hitting three consecutive layups to increase the

Servite lead to 54-48 with just under three minutes to go.

Corona didn’t die. Mancillas hit his third three-pointer in four

tries with senior Brett Matsen and Seaborn both hitting turnaround

jumpers off the glass to keep the Sea Kings within five with 4:07 to

go in the fourth. Those were the last points the Sea Kings would

score as the Friars went on a 15-0 run to close out the game.

Mancillas led the Sea Kings with 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting as

Corona finished 18 of 53 from the field compared to Servite’s

23-for-66 effort. Northridge and Welch, both listed at six feet, led

the Sea Kings with five rebounds apiece and Matsen grabbed four

rebounds along with scoring 10 points.

Yujuico hit 5-of-5 free throw attempts, including four in the

Friars’ late run that saw them hit on 8-of-8 attempts in the fourth.