Dream Team

Patrick Laverty

It was the year of the trey.

Almost all of the best boys basketball players from the

Newport-Mesa area were marksmen from beyond the three-point arc.

Among the best of them was Corona del Mar senior guard Pancho

Seaborn, the Daily Pilot boys basketball Player of the Year. With 82

three-pointers, Seaborn was the second-most prolific outside shooter

in Newport-Mesa this season, but he meant so much more to his team.

The Sea Kings’ top defender, Seaborn, at 6-foot-3, was also their

tallest starter. He showed a knack for scoring inside and outside on

his way to averaging 16.6 points per game and led Corona del Mar into

the second round of the CIF Southern Section Division III-A playoffs,

where no other Newport-Mesa team ventured this season.

Seaborn is joined on the Daily Pilot Dream Team by a collection of

similar players. He is one of three seniors on the seven-man squad

and one of five that stand 6-3. No player is taller than that, an

oddity for sure, but there were no better than these seven.

The other seniors, in addition to Seaborn, are his teammate Jay

Northridge, a 5-foot-8 guard, and Sage Hill’s Kevin Joyce, a 6-3

forward. Juniors selected to the all-area team include Newport Harbor

6-3 forward Taylor Young, Estancia 6-3 guard Carlos Pinto and Costa

Mesa 6-3 forward Jeff Waldron. The lone sophomore to make the team,

and the leading three-pointer shooter among a collection of

three-point shooters, is Costa Mesa’s Scott Knox, a 6-0 guard.

After a slow start to the season, Northridge began to heat up

shortly before the beginning of Pacific Coast League play. Sharing

the point guard duties with Adam Freede, Northridge also proved

himself a scorer, going for 26 points, 21 points and 18 points in the three games prior to the start of league play. He played crucial

roles in an upset of Northwood, with 24 points, and a near-upset of

league champion Tesoro, when he scored 26. He finished the season

averaging 13.3 points and, like most everyone else on the Dream Team,

he had a knack for hitting from the outside, making 59 three-pointers

on the season.

Joyce, playing outside the limelight of the bigger public schools,

was a standout all season long for the Lightning. He scored in double

figures in every game and was the team’s leading scorer and

rebounder. A prolific shooter, who made more than 40 three-pointers,

he also was a strong interior player, a necessity since he was the

tallest player on Sage Hill’s squad. He had a stretch of eight games

early in the season when he scored 20 or more points in every game.

He notched his season-high, 31, in a December victory over Fresno

Christian and went for 30 in a crucial late-season win against

Whitney.

Young is one of two football players, the other being Waldron, to

make the team. Like Waldron, he used the strength developed in that

sport to his advantage. Though he began the season as a shooting

guard or small forward, Young was forced into the paint after a knee

injury sidelined 6-8 Jamie Diefenbach for the season in late

December. Young responded with 28 points in the first game Diefenbach

missed and became the Sailors’ leading scorer and rebounder over the

final two months of the season. After averaging 10.4 points over the

first 12 games of the season, Young finished with an average of 13.3,

scoring in double figures in 13 of the Sailors’ final 14 games,

despite consistently playing against much bigger opponents.

A three-year varsity player, Pinto was the lifeblood of an

Estancia team that reached the playoffs in Russell King’s first

season as head coach. The Eagles’ go-to scorer, Pinto found a variety

of ways to put the ball in the bucket, including from beyond the arc,

where he made 54 three-pointers.

Pinto finished with a 17.6 scoring average, producing

double-figure point totals in all but two games. But he meant so much

more to his team. He also grabbed 5.3 rebounds per game and was

second on the team in assists, with 44 in the regular season.

His smooth shooting stroke could be seen at the free-throw line,

where he shot better than 80%.

Waldron has a smooth shooting stroke as well, but Newport-Mesa’s

leading rebounder didn’t show it until the season was eight games

old. A power forward who averaged 13.6 points and 12.1 rebounds,

Waldron knocked down just two treys in the Mustangs’ first seven

games.

But starting with two three-pointers in a loss to Aliso Niguel,

Waldron made at least one shot from threedom in 19 of his final 20

games and finished with 42 three-pointers. His outside shooting added

another weapon to what was already one of the best arsenals in the

area.

A linebacker in football, Waldron’s tenacity inside often

overwhelmed taller opponents. Armed with an inside-outside game, he

became one of the tougher assignments for opposing defenders.

While Waldron took awhile to get his three-point stroke going, his

teammate, Knox, started firing from the opening tip.

Setting what is believed to be a school record for most

three-pointers in a season, Knox nailed 91 shots from long range,

connecting from behind the arc at least once in all 27 games this

season.

He led the Mustangs with 15.5 points per game and did most of his

damage from deep. He set a Newport-Mesa record for most

three-pointers in a game, hitting 10 in the regular-season finale

against Santa Ana.

He also drained eight three-pointers in a playoff loss to Colony

and hit seven in a victory over Gahr. He made three or more from long

range in 16 games.

Seaborn, a three-year starter for the Sea Kings, was nearly as

proficient as Knox, posting 15 games with three or more

three-pointers. He made six three balls in three games as well as a

29-point performance in the Sea Kings’ 75-50, first-round playoff

victory over De Anza League champion Vista del Lago in which he sank

seven three-pointers.