Breakers fall short in tie-breaker

Mike Sciacca

The Laguna Beach High boys’ basketball team put it all on the line in

a two-day period last week, its effort admirable yet just shy of

coming to fruition.

Needing to defeat University in their regular season finale on

Feb. 12 in order to climb into a third-place tie with the host

Trojans, the Breakers did just that as they went overtime to claim a

90-87 victory.

Two days later, in a tie-breaker to determine the Pacific Coast

League’s third-place representative in the CIF Southern-Section

Division IV-AA basketball playoffs, Laguna again took University to

the wire but this time, fell, 72-70, at Northwood High.

Despite the tough loss, Laguna was given an at-large berth to the

Division IVAA playoffs.

The Breakers played at Milken Community High of Los Angeles

Wednesday in a first-round game.

“Those were two very important games for us,” Laguna coach Mark

Hill said of the University series. “Like I told the kids before the

tie-breaker game, I was very proud of them. That tie-breaker gave us

one more opportunity to play another game in a playoff-type of

atmosphere. Now we know what to expect when we reach the playoffs.”

In the third-place playoff game, Laguna clung to a 54-52 lead

through three quarters of play.

Junior Ivan Kovacevic poured in a game-high 28 points to power the

Breakers.

Austin Sands scored 13 points and Jeff Clark, who hit both of

Laguna’s three-point shots, finished with 12 points.

In the 90-87 overtime victory on the Trojans’ home court, Laguna

got a monstrous performance from Sands.

The senior forward/center netting 19 points to go along with a

game-high 20 rebounds and five blocked shots.

“Austin just had an incredible game,” Hill said. “We had a few

outstanding performances in that game and we were phenomenal from the

free throw line.”

Freshman guard Cheyne Martin was red-hot from the field, scoring a

game-high 35 points, 10 of which were scored in overtime.

The Breakers also secured the victory at the foul line by hitting

an amazing 31 of 33 free throw attempts.

Laguna also stayed in the game despite having a few players in

foul trouble, including Kovacevic.

What pleased Hill was that, despite the foul trouble, the Breakers

were able to overcome a 12-point second half deficit to stun the

Trojans.

“The kids did a tremendous job in both of these games,” Hill said.

“I was just so proud of their effort.”