Tars triumph in Perrine time

NEWPORT BEACH -- For Newport Harbor High junior Brett Perrine, the

second-best thing about Friday’s Sea View League-opening boys

basketball showdown with visiting Foothill is that it’s over.

The best thing? How Perrine finished it.

The 6-foot-5 swing man collected a steal in the backcourt, then

scored the game-winning layup with eight seconds left for a 47-45

verdict that propels the depleted Sailors into the league’s early

upper echelon.

“Good win; bad night,” said Perrine, who had missed his last eight

field-goal attempts before the difference-maker, including an air

ball on a 10-foot, pull-up jumper in the lane with 29 seconds left

and the score tied.

A timeout followed Perrine’s miss, during which Sailors Coach

Larry Hirst administered what he later called a tough-love lecture to

Perrine, who had, after junior Taylor Young fouled out with 1:43

remaining, become the Tars’ No. 1 offensive option.

“We want Brett to penetrate and try to get to the line, but we

want him to finish his shot,” Hirst said of the pointed, but not

heated timeout-huddle discussion. “He kind of aimed [the air ball]

instead of shooting it and I told him to go up and shoot the ball

naturally.”

Perrine, who was 3 of 17 from the field before the fateful

take-away, said he left the timeout huddle with his confidence

shaken.

“I was a little down on myself,” he said. “I knew I had to get up

and do something to help the team.”

Perrine waited only seconds to come through, ambushing a Foothill

ball-handler near the midcourt line and knocking the ball away,

toward the Sailors’ basket.

Newport guard Rafael Mouradyan converged on the ball about the

same time as the Foothill player trying to recover it, and the ball

caromed away, once again. Perrine, who had drifted past the two

players, pulled in the turnover near the top of the key and wheeled

in for an uncontested layup.

Foothill (10-7), which had erased a 10-point third-quarter deficit

when senior sharpshooter Brandt Bangs sank a three-pointer with 47

seconds left in the game, misfired on a 24-foot three-point attempt

at the buzzer to allow the Sailors (10-6) to enjoy a brief but

spirited celebration.

“We told the kids before the game, three [Sea View] teams were

going to be 1-0 after [Friday night] and three teams were going to be

0-1,” Hirst said. “We wanted to be one of the teams that were 1-0.”

“I took a bad shot, but, fortunately, I was able to get a hand in

the passing lane and come up with the loose ball,” said Perrine, who

finished with eight points, seven rebounds and two assists.

Young, a 6-2 junior who, with 6-8 senior center Jamie Diefenbach

out for the season after tearing his ACL during the team’s

post-Christmas trip to Alaska, has become the go-to scorer, produced

16 points and 10 rebounds, before collecting his fifth foul.

Young made 8 of 9 field-goal attempts, including his final seven,

the last coming after he hauled in an offensive rebound and scored

with 1:45 left to up the Tars’ lead to 43-40. It was the first

Newport bucket in a span of more than five minutes, since Young’s

putback upped the hosts’ lead to 41-37.

Foothill, which led, 19-13, before Harbor went on a 12-0 run and

finished the half on a 17-2 spurt to take a 30-21 intermission

advantage, pared into the lead in the final 12 minutes.

Bangs, a returning all-league performer who came in averaging 16.3

points per game, hit the third of his five three-pointers to help the

Knights pull within 39-37 at the end of the third quarter.

Another Bangs three ball cut the lead to 41-40 with 4:10 left,

despite diamond-and-one defensive attention on the 5-10 guard.

“[Bangs] is a man among boys out there,” Hirst said. “I can’t

believe he never got tired. I have to give Alex Orth, who was on him

about 60% of the time, and Mouradyan, who was on him the other 40%, a

lot of credit.”

Bangs finished with a game-high 21 points, shooting 50% from both

the field (8 of 16) and threedom.

Sophomore Dennis Heenan had 10 points, including a pair of

three-pointers to help the Sailors prevail.

*--*

Sea View League

Newport Harbor 47, Foothill 45

Score by Quarters

Foothill 13 8 16 8 - 45

Newport 11 19 9 8 - 47 Foothill - Worrall 10, Roblees 4, Bangs 21,

O’Toole 2, Sabino 0, Spencer 6, Balanes 2.

3-pt. goals - Bangs 5, Spencer 2. Fouled out -

None. Technicals - None. Newport Harbor - Young

16, Perrine 8, MacBeth 4, Heenan 10, Mouradyan

7, Orth 2, Slater 0. 3-pt. goals - Heenan 2,

Mouradyan 2. Fouled out - Young. Technicals -

None.

*--*