Ocean View cruises to CIF title

SANTA ANA — Avery Johnson got the steal near midcourt, took off and slammed the ball at the buzzer.

It was an exclamation point — and the buzzer only signified the end of the third quarter.

But Johnson and his Ocean View High teammates had already shown they wouldn’t be denied. They made a powerful statement in winning the Seahawks’ first CIF boys’ basketball title since 1998, and second overall.

Ocean View cruised by an overmatched Inglewood squad, 76-47, Saturday in the CIF Southern Section Division IV-AA title game at Mater Dei High.

A team with just one senior in its rotation dominated nearly every aspect of the game, and won a plaque because of it. Now the Seahawks will prepare for the CIF State Division III Southern California regional, which begins Tuesday.

Ocean View is the No. 2-seeded team, behind Harvard-Westlake. The Seahawks begin with a first-round home game against Cathedral Catholic at 7 p.m.

Ocean View Coach Jim Harris, whose 31st season will continue at least a while longer, said one of the keys to the CIF title run was attitude.

“Go out there and go at it right now, and don’t wait to see anything,” Harris said he told his players. “And they did. They played really well together, and made great decisions. The biggest key, of many, was that Avery Johnson and Anthony Brown were who they should be. They were pretty complete players, I’ll tell you that. They rebounded, they scored and they defended. The biggest thing was the rebounding ... somehow we play up [in size].”

Brown had 21 points, 10 rebounds and three steals for the Seahawks (24-7). Johnson had 20 points and five blocks, many of those of the sensational variety.

Senior Mason Jones added 18 points and four assists.

The trio set the tone in the opening quarter, when they made four three-pointers and combined for all 24 of Ocean View’s points. At one point, the No. 3-seeded Seahawks led, 18-4, which was similar to a 17-2 start in their semifinal win over Serra.

The difference this time? The foot stayed on the gas, and the hands stayed in the faces of Inglewood shooters.

The No. 4-seeded Sentinels, who had scored 97 points in an overtime win over top-seeded Bishop Montgomery in the semifinals, scored less than half that Saturday. They also shot just 31% from the field, compared to 47% for Ocean View.

“Our defense speaks for itself,” Jones said. “Coach Harris kept saying, ‘Rebound it, rebound it, rebound it,’ and we did. We rebounded a lot today. And it’s kind of hard to beat a team when Avery Johnson has [20], Anthony Brown has 21 and I have 18. It’s hard to beat that.

“This whole week we’ve been practicing shooting and going over Inglewood’s offense. Our game plan was whenever [Da’Shawn Gomez] got off the ball, don’t let him get it back. And whenever he did penetrate, to try to pinch over. We did that well.”

Ocean View led by 14 at halftime, then used back-to-back three-pointers from Jones to open up a 42-24 advantage. The lead kept building, all the way to 55-29 when sophomore guard Billy Keller (six points) scored on a behind-the-back pass from Johnson.

“We scouted [Inglewood] well, what they could do and what they couldn’t do,” Brown said. “We thought they couldn’t run with us, or contain our spread offense.”

Gomez, who had scored 35 against Bishop Montgomery, scored 22 on Saturday. But 10 of those were in garbage time in the fourth quarter. After the third quarter, which was capped with Johnson’s aforementioned jam, Ocean View was already up, 63-34.

Desean Anderson, Inglewood’s second-leading scorer, had just one point.

Johnson, meanwhile, grinned at mention of the dunk after the game. He had already attempted one earlier in the third quarter but was intentionally fouled by Inglewood’s Gerald Evans before the play.

“We just kept on going hard, going hard,” Johnson said. “I wanted the last one but he intentionally fouled me. I wanted to get another one, and it happened at the buzzer. I think that got us hyped and ready to celebrate.”

Celebrate the Seahawks did — but not too much. They want to stick around a while in the state playoffs, too.

“This school’s never won a state championship before,” Johnson said. “That would be icing on the cake, to win a state championship and make history.”

Junior center Ryan Okwudibonye had seven points and eight rebounds for Ocean View, which has won 16 of its last 17 games. And even the loss was to King of Riverside, which beat Mater Dei in the Division I-AA title game on Saturday night.

“We lost that game, but it kind of catapulted us to this run,” Harris said.

Chris Martinez played some quality minutes at center off the bench as well.