Stunned Seahawks rebound

HUNTINGTON BEACH — Coming off an ugly performance, the Ocean View High basketball team needed a bounce-back.

Three nights after what Coach Jim Harris called his team’s worst showing in two years, they got some of that mojo back.

Behind 30 points from senior Avery Johnson, Ocean View defeated La Jolla, 62-47, in the first round of the CIF Southern California Division III regional. That came after a painful 64-58 loss to Foothill on Saturday night at the Honda Center in the CIF Southern Section Division III-AA championship game.

Ocean View hosts Verdugo Hills at 7 tonight in the second round of the SoCal regional. A win and the Seahawks (28-4) could face top-seeded Serra on the road Saturday in a Division III regional semifinal.

“We can’t get down on the Foothill game,” junior guard Billy Keller said. “We can’t let that get to our heads. We need to come back out and try to prove a point, that we can still come back and get this.”

Senior center Ryan Okwudibonye had 10 points and 12 rebounds. Anthony Brown added 13 points for Ocean View, which pulled away in the second half after trailing late in the first.

On the defensive end, Keller had a team-high four steals, also scoring seven.

“I was just putting some shots up after Saturday, working on my game,” said Johnson, whose 30 points tied a season-high. “I got held to seven [against Foothill], and that’s just unacceptable for me.”

Harris said he hopes his team might have a bit of a chip on its shoulder after failing to win its second straight Southern Section title. Now, they want a repeat performance that could land them in the CIF State Division III championship game, which is where they went last year.

“We talked about that,” Harris said. “Just because you’re favored, that doesn’t put the points on the board. We needed to redeem ourselves [from Saturday], and [Tuesday’s win] was a beginning. We have a chance to do some big redemption if we can keep going.”

In the CIF Southern Section Division III-AA championship Saturday night at the Honda Center, Foothill won its first CIF title in boys’ basketball in its first finals appearance.

The Knights denied Ocean View its second straight title and third overall in the process. And it all started on the defensive end.

“That’s just been our backbone,” Foothill Coach Rusty Van Cleave said. “We’ve got guys who are willing to defend. They’re good athletes, they’ve got a good feel for the game and they want to defend. That gave us a great chance to make it hard for the talent that Ocean View brings to the table.”

The bad game came at the most inopportune time. The Seahawks shot 24% from the field in the first half. For the game, senior captains Anthony Brown and Johnson were a combined six-of-21 from the field.

Even that Ocean View standard — the breakout dunk — was nowhere to be found. Ocean View had one dunk chance, but the Stanford-bound Brown clanked it off the rim in traffic in the second quarter.

“Even when we had breakout fast breaks, we didn’t finish,” Harris said. “We missed a dunk. I mean, how often do you see [Brown] miss a running dunk? He usually puts his elbow down the basket ... You’ve got to play well on a big stage, and they played well and we didn’t. I thought they controlled the game.”

The Seahawks wanted to push the tempo early, but Foothill was up to the task. Junior guard Rob Filley hit three three-pointers in the first quarter as the Knights surged ahead, 13-2.

“They came out and they punched us in the mouth,” Brown said. “I don’t think we were expecting that. We thought that since we won it last year, we could just come here and win. We didn’t have to play.”

Ocean View cut the deficit to six by halftime, and to two early in the third quarter. But then a steal by senior guard Myles Carrillo led to a three-point play at the other end for Cooper Pickell, and the lead was safe again. Carrillo, Foothill’s leading scorer, had another standout game with 16 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Brown also had 16 points for Ocean View.

Okwudibonye had 13 points and 14 rebounds for Ocean View and senior guard Steven Yoon scored eight, all in the second half.

Senior forward Chris Martinez provided some good energy off the bench in the second quarter and scored four points.

Ocean View didn’t get it done Saturday night, but Brown said he still believes this team can make a run at a state title.

”We just have to keep our heads up,” Brown said. “If we put our heads down and we’re like, ‘Oh, this is a failure,’ then we’re not going to get anything done. But I know this team is capable of going through all the obstacles. We can beat everyone in our bracket. It’s just a matter of us getting our rhythm back.”