Gonzalez, Valley punish Sea Kings

Patrick Laverty

Santa Ana Valley High senior Martin Gonzalez has shown the

Newport-Mesa School District exactly what he is capable of in the

first two rounds of the La Quinta boys basketball tournament.

After scoring 31 points in a first-round victory over Estancia,

Gonzalez nearly single-handedly defeated Corona del Mar, scoring 34

points and grabbing 20 rebounds as the Falcons defeated the Sea

Kings, 46-37, in the second round Wednesday at La Quinta.

“He’s a really good player,” Sea Kings Coach Ryan Curry said.

“He’s been a four-year varsity player. He’s always around the ball.”

He always seems to put that ball in the basket, too. He scored 22

points in the first half as Santa Ana Valley opened a 27-14 halftime

advantage, from which the Sea Kings (1-2) never recovered despite a

valiant effort in the third quarter.

Turning up the intensity on defense, CdM forced four consecutive

Falcons turnovers in the third quarter, which highlighted an 11-0 run

that was capped with Jay Northridge’s three-pointer with 2:52 left in

the third quarter that cut the lead to 29-27.

But the Sea Kings didn’t score again until there were just five

minutes left in the game, which took away the key to their

third-quarter run, the press.

“When [Santa Ana Valley] took the timeout [during CdM’s run], I

told [the Sea Kings] that can’t be an emotional high,” Curry said.

“That’s got to be the level of play we’re at. But we didn’t score

again for another five minutes, so we couldn’t press.”

Five free throws by Santa Ana Valley gave it a 34-27 lead at the

end of the third quarter and Gonzalez pushed that lead to 38-27 with

four points to begin the fourth quarter.

Gonzalez, a 6-foot-1 forward, converted 11 of 16 shots from the

field, all 10 of his free throws and two of four three-pointers. No

one else on Santa Ana Valley scored more than six points and only

four other players scored.

Every Sea Kings player was having trouble scoring as CdM converted

just five field goals in the first half and shot 23% (13 of 56) in

the contest.

The poor shooting percentage, which included converting just one

of 17 three-point attempts, was a surprise considering CdM is a

guard-oriented team. The fact that the Sea Kings made 10 of 12 free

throws shows that they can shoot.

“We shot the ball so poorly,” Curry said. “I thought we forced

stuff offensively. We took some bad shots. I think we got frustrated

and took quick shots.”

CdM will attempt to erase the frustration of Wednesday’s loss in a

fifth-place semifinal against Huntington Beach at 3:30 p.m. Friday at

La Quinta High.

“We’ll have to play well,” Curry said. “We need to play well

because playing well leads to improvement. The unfortunate thing is I

don’t think we played well [Wednesday] and anyone who has seen us the

last two games would agree.”

*--*

Aztec Classic Second round

Santa Ana Valley 46, Corona del Mar 37

Score by Quarters

CdM 8 6 13 10 -- 37

SAV 16 11 7 12 -- 46

CdM -- Northridge 7, Wantabe 0, R. Lance 8,

Freede 0, Seaborn 9, K. Welch 0, MacDonald 2,

Hirata 5, T. Lance 6. 3-pt. field goals --

Northridge 1.

SAV -- Nava 1, Banner 6, Cueva 3, Gonzalez

34, Martinez 0, Morales 0, Estrada 0, Sosa 2.

3-pt. goals -- Gonzalez 2. Technicals --

Cueva.

*--*