Sailors left scrambling after three departures

Barry Faulkner

Newport Harbor High boys basketball coach Larry Hirst said three

players expected to start and lead his team next season have left the

program.

Andre Pinesett, who will be a senior next fall, will not return

for his third varsity season, Hirst said, so he can concentrate on

baseball.

In addition, Hirst reports that brothers Brett and Todd Lowenthal,

who played well last year after transferring before the season from

Torrey Pines High in Encinitas, have gone back to their former school

in San Diego County.

Brett Lowenthal averaged 8.1 points per game -- second-best on the

team -- as a 6-foot-6 junior forward, scoring in all 26 of the

Sailors’ games.

Todd Lowenthal, a 6-0 freshman last season when he averaged 4.3

ppg, would have been a featured performer in the Tars’ backcourt this

season and, some believe, had the potential to eventually be one of

the better guards in Orange County.

Pinesett averaged 5.9 ppg as a 6-0 junior guard last season, his

second on the varsity. He transferred to Newport Harbor from Mater

Dei after his freshman year.

Hirst, whose Sailors will host the George Yardley Summer Cage

Classic, July 11-13, said 6-8 Jamie Diefenbach, who missed all of his

junior season with a torn ACL, is only about 65%, despite earning

All-Newport-Mesa laurels in volleyball last spring.

Hirst noted Brett Perrine, who averaged 3.8 ppg last season as a

6-3 sophomore, before being sidelined for the final four games with a

torn ACL, may not play until late July, if at all this summer.

“Basically, all our experience is gone right now,” Hirst said.