Newport Harbor boys’ basketball takes home title in Century Elks Holiday Classic

A team motto became much more than words on Thursday night for the Newport Harbor High School boys’ basketball team.

The Sailors were in the final of the Century Elks Holiday Classic, but it was on them to self-motivate when a roof leak over the main court pushed the championship game away from the stands and onto a side court at Century High School.

Jake Read had a game-high 24 points to go with four rebounds and three assists, leading Newport Harbor past Palm Desert 67-54 for the tournament title.

“Like most teams, we tell our guys that nothing bothers us, and today, we kind of had to prove it playing on the side court right here,” Newport Harbor coach Bob Torribio said. “I’d like to think that the way we started the game and finished the whole thing that nothing did bother us today.”

Newport Harbor (13-5) made 10 three-pointers. Read led the pack with four shots made from beyond the arc, followed by Riggs Guy (13 points) with three and Brandon Kincaid with two.

Kincaid, who finished with 14 points and three assists, was named the MVP of the tournament. Adam Gaa and Read were named to the all-tournament team. Gaa scored 10 points with five rebounds.

“Recently, I was struggling with the three-point shot, but I started working on it more, just got my field-goal percentage up,” Kincaid said.

Kincaid added that he was a fan of the rims on the main court. He had a simple but honest response for why that was.

“My shots were falling,” he said with a laugh.

While the Sailors were knocking down their shots, Isaac Davis played the role of distributor, handing out nine assists.

Newport Harbor previously won the Century Elks Holiday Classic in 2018.

Brady Clemmer scored 20 points to lead Palm Desert (11-7), doing so on the strength of six three-pointers. Hayden Mathews added 12 points, and Owen Hayden had 10 points for the Aztecs.

“I think it helped us boost our confidence a lot,” Read said of winning the tournament. “Going into our league, that’s pretty tough. We got a lot of really good teams in our league coming up these next 10 games, and I think this helps us just prepare and get ready for our next league games.”

Sunset Conference play begins next week for the Sailors, who will have home games against Marina on Wednesday and Corona del Mar on Friday in the Battle of the Bay. The rival Sea Kings edged Buena Park 46-44 Thursday to run their record to 16-2 overall.

Century Elks Holiday Classic

Newport Harbor 67, Palm Desert 54

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Palm Desert 13 – 9 – 19 – 13 — 54

Newport Harbor 17 – 21 – 14 – 15 — 67

PD — Clemmer 20, Mathews 12, Hayden 10, Wilson 6, Digiacomo 2, Evans 2, Gorden 2.

3-pt. goals — Clemmer 6.

Fouled out — None.

Technicals — None.

NH — Read 24, Kincaid 14, Guy 13, Gaa 10, Davis 6.

3-pt. goals — Read 4, Guy 3, Kincaid 2, Davis 1.

Fouled out — None.

Technicals — None.

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