Boys’ Basketball: CdM comes up short
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO — The Corona del Mar High boys’ basketball team lost two big men to another sport on Saturday. Coach Ryan Schachter wasn’t thrilled about not having 6-foot-7 starting center Ryan Moss and 6-foot-4 sixth-man Matt Ctvrtlik available against Santa Barbara San Marcos.
For Moss and Ctvrtlik, club volleyball took precedence over the Sea Kings’ showcase basketball game at the D3 Extravaganza at San Juan Hills High. While the high school hoops season is in session, volleyball on the club level began this month.
The Sea Kings could have used Moss and Ctvrtlik in a contest that featured two programs ranked in the top five in their CIF Southern Section divisions. This one went down to the wire, with San Marcos holding on for a 41-38 win in overtime.
It was the second overtime win in five days for San Marcos (11-4).
Scott Everman led the way against CdM, scoring four of the Royals’ five points in the four-minute overtime period. Everman, a 6-foot-6 junior, took advantage of CdM’s lack of size inside, driving in for two baskets to put San Marcos up, 40-36, with 1:42 left. He finished with 18 points on six-for-10 shooting, including three for five from three-point range.
“Of course we missed them,” Schachter said of Moss and Ctvrtlik, adding that they will have to sit out CdM’s next game, at Edison on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., because they missed Saturday’s game. “They’re an integral part of our team. The guys that are here showed up and played hard. We just couldn’t score.”
Two points are all CdM (9-5) managed in overtime. Another two-sport standout, Sam Kobrine, provided the basket with 18 seconds to go, cutting the deficit to three.
Kobrine made it to the 4 p.m. game after playing with his club volleyball team before the Sea Kings, ranked No. 4 in CIF Division 3A, hit the floor against the Royals, No. 5 in Division 3AA.
Schachter still sat the junior guard for the first part of the opening quarter because Kobrine was late to the Sea Kings’ walk-through, 90 minutes prior to the tipoff. Kobrine ended up playing starter minutes.
CdM missed a three-point attempt after Bo St. Geme made a steal and the Sea Kings called timout with 12 seconds left.
“It was the shot we wanted,” Schachter said, “but we didn’t set it up right.”
CdM made only one of 15 three-point attempts. The team’s free-throw shooting was just as abysmal, converting one of eight.
“It was an ugly game on the offensive end,” said Schachter, whose team shot 33% from the field, the same as San Marcos.
The only bright spot on offense for CdM was Ryan Kleinman. The senior came off the bench to hit six of 10 shots for his 12 points.
Eight of Kleinman’s points came in the second quarter, mostly from inside. He also finished the first half with a basket, helping CdM tie the game at 17-17. At the end of the third quarter, Kleinman’s layup cut the deficit to 31-30.
The Sea Kings closed out each quarter in regulation with the last basket.
St. Geme’s left-handed floater near the free-throw line with 18 seconds to go in regulation tied the game at 36-36, forcing overtime.
The one period CdM was unable to hit the last shot was in overtime.
“I was just telling the guys, ‘Hey, this is the caliber of team [that] we’ll see down the road [in the playoffs],’” San Marcos first-year coach Landon Boucher said of the Sea Kings, who eliminated the Royals in the quarterfinals of the Division 3AA playoffs in 2012-13 and in the second round of the Division 3A playoffs in 2009-10. “It was cool to see our guys just respond and just come out with an intense effort on defense.”
Twitter: @DCPenaloza
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D3 Extravaganza
San Marcos 41, Corona del Mar 38, OT
SCORE BY QUARTERS
CdM 6 – 11 – 13 – 6 – 2 — 38
San Marcos 10 – 7 – 14 – 5 – 5 — 41
CdM – Kleinman 12, Fults 8, Stone 6, St. Geme 5, Kobrine 4, Borquez 2, Ridge 1.
3-pt. goals – St. Geme 1.
Fouled out – None.
Technicals – None.
SM – S. Everman 18, McCarthy 7, Larsen 6, Mkpado 6, Miller 4.
3-pt. goals – S. Everman 3, Larsen 2, McCarthy 1, Miller 1.
Fouled out – None.
Technicals – None.