Fountain Valley upsets Edison, stops it from clinching league crown

Riding a 7-0 start to Sunset League play, the Edison High boys’ basketball team appeared set to cruise to an outright league title.

Two troubling losses later, such is hardly a certainty for the Chargers.

Host Fountain Valley stunned Edison 77-62 on Tuesday night, dominating from the opening minutes and refusing to let up. As a result, the Chargers, who have now missed back-to-back chances to clinch a share of the league title, will arrive at their regular-season finale in danger of letting what seemed to be a certain league title slip away.

Newport Harbor won 58-44 at Marina on Tuesday and moved into a tie with Edison atop the Sunset League standings. The Sailors and Chargers are 7-2 in league, and each team has one game remaining in league.

For the Barons (10-15, 3-6 in league), it marked a monumental win in their first season under coach D’Cean Bryant.

“This was a big win for the program, and I think it was a big win for those kids,” Bryant said. “We’ve struggled all year. We’ve had our ups and downs. It’s not about me, it’s about them, and I think a lot of people saw the certain talents certain players have tonight. It was all about confidence.

“For us as a program, this was huge. It’s a big turnaround, and shows that we can get things done at Fountain Valley. It’s kind of a forecast into the future to come.”

Fountain Valley wreaked havoc with a high-intensity defensive effort that resulted in a 10-0 run to start the contest. Before the Chargers (19-7 overall) even recorded their first points, the Barons had already forced four turnovers in the first four minutes.

The opening stretch foreshadowed a long night to come for the Edison offensive attack. The Chargers committed 11 first-half turnovers and a total of 17 in the game, while having their top scorer, senior guard David Atencio, essentially silenced in the first half.

Atencio recorded a team-high 16 points, but had just two points at the break.

“They still had 62 points, but we just had to contain David Atencio,” Fountain Valley senior forward Joshua Gray said. “He’s the leader of the team. We figured if we could stop him from driving, we could stop the whole team, and that’s what we did.”

Despite the sputtering offense, Edison trailed by just two points at the half, thanks to a no-look, three-point heave from Josh Phillips at the buzzer. The senior big man finished the game with 15 points to go along with seven blocked shots and three steals.

Unfortunately for the Chargers, any momentum from the exciting end to the first half dissipated just a few minutes into the third quarter.

At the six-minute mark of the third, a block from Phillips led to an Aiden Garnett layup to tie the game at 32-32.

This would be the last tie of the game for Edison, which never held a lead. Fountain Valley outscored Edison by 15 the rest of the way, pushing the Chargers out of striking range behind stifling team defense and offensive firepower from Gray and freshman guard Jeremiah Davis, who finished with 23 and 15 points, respectively. Cameron Mansouri added 11 points.

Edison now looks to regroup before Thursday’s season finale at Huntington Beach, where it can clinch at least a share of the league title with a victory. The Oilers dropped to 0-9 in league after losing 67-53 at Los Alamitos on Tuesday.

The Griffins are in third place at 6-3, a game back of Edison and Newport Harbor. Last season, Edison shared the league crown with Los Alamitos, marking the fourth time it has split first place under coach Rich Boyce.

“Hopefully they understand they can’t take anybody for granted,” said Boyce, who has never won an outright league title in his 18 seasons at the helm of Edison. “We must have turned the ball over nearly 15 times in that first half. We were lucky to be within two. They beat us to every loose ball, they beat us to the basket, they beat us in every phase of the game, and they deserved to beat us by more than the final score showed.”

*

Fountain Valley 77, Edison 62

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Edison 13 – 12 – 15 – 22 — 62

Fountain Valley 20 – 7 – 28 – 22 — 77

E – Atencio 16, Phillips 15, Garnett 12, Headington 9, Serven 5, Palma 2, Sale 2, Barrett 1.

3-pt. goals – Atencio 3, Phillips 1, Garnett 1, Headington 1.

Fouled out – None.

Technicals – None.

FV – Gray 23, Davis 15, Mansouri 11, De La Riva 9, Bitzer 7, Volkert 5, Ho 4, Young 3.

3-pt. goals – Davis 1, De La Riva 1, Volkert 1, Bitzer 1.

Fouled out – None.

Technicals – None.

JOSH CRISWELL is a contributor to Times Community News. Follow him on Twitter: @joshccriswell