Giants just get a piece of last shot

Steve Virgen

Corona del Mar High, known for its shooting from long distance, came

up just short in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division

III-A boys basketball playoffs at Ganesha Wednesday night.

CdM, which led most of the game, was left with one chance with

five seconds left, when it trailed, 60-57. The Sea Kings went to the

basis of their offense, the three-point shot, but Ganesha senior

Antonio Taylor’s outstretched right hand grazed the shot attempt that

fell short of the rim as time expired, resulting in the Giants’

victory.

“This game could have gone either way,” Ganesha Coach Joe Tremblay

said. “Play this game again, and I’m not sure if we win. We’re not a

tall team. We had to run (increase the tempo). A lot of the games

we’ve won, we’ve won in the fourth quarter. We pride ourselves on

wearing teams down.”

Ganesha (16-12) earned its first lead of the game, 50-48, with

7:09 left after sophomore Di’Mon Phelps (14 points) nailed his first

of two fourth-quarter three-pointers. He came off the bench to finish

4 of 7 from beyond the three-point arc.

The Sea Kings(12-16) answered back when junior Adam Freede (nine

points) drove the lane and dished out an assist to senior Brett

Matsen for an easy bucket in the paint. Then, the Giants went on an

8-1 run over the next four minutes, but CdM cut into the lead with a

6-0 run in a 55-second span. The Sea Kings were down, 58-57, with

1:15 left.

Matsen started the run. He grabbed an offensive rebound that was

tipped twice by other players and was fouled on the putback, but

scored anyway. CdM junior Jay Northridge, who scored 15 points,

converted two free throws from a one-and-one opportunity that cut the

deficit to 58-55.

Then, with 1:16 left, Freede ran in front of a pass at mid-court,

recorded a steal and scored on a layup. But, Taylor drained what

proved to be the game-winning free throws with 57 seconds left.

Ganesha twice missed the front of one-and-one opportunities, with 28

seconds left and then with nine seconds left, the latter when CdM

senior Pancho Seaborn fouled out. Seaborn led the Sea Kings with 16

points.

Sea King senior Kevin Mancillas grabbed the rebound off the miss

by Jeffery Jordan, but officials did not hear CdM Coach Ryan Curry

shouting for his final timeout until there was five seconds showing

on the game clock.

“You’ll always go back and look at what could have been different;

it’s human nature,” Curry said. “But we had the kids we wanted on the

floor. We just came up short. We had a great season. Our kids, they

do everything we ask of them. Our goal was to be in every game so

that we could win and I thought we were in a lot of the games this

season.”

The Sea Kings opened the game with a 7-0 lead. They went up 9-2

with five minutes left in the first quarter, but then the Giants

scored seven straight points. However, CdM outscored Ganesha, 8-2, to

close out the period, as Northridge drilled two three-pointers in the

spurt.

CdM earned its biggest lead, 25-15, after Northridge recorded a

steal then collected an assist on a fast break that ended with a

layup by Freede. The Sea Kings also gained another 10-point lead

(31-21) with 53 seconds left before halftime. But Ganesha hit

back-to-back three-pointers and then CdM settled for a 32-27 halftime

lead.

The Giants came within one three times in the third quarter, but

the Sea Kings held them off thanks to scoring by Seaborn and

Mancillas.

“Our effort has been great all season,” Curry said. “I wanted us

to play well, that was the goal every game, no matter the score.”