Boys’ Basketball: Sea Kings come through with victory
Whether on a basketball court or on a football field, Corona del Mar High isn’t afraid to go to John Humphreys with the game on the line. He’s only a freshman, yet he keeps coming through in the clutch.
The day after Thanksgiving, he caught a game-winning touchdown pass with 45 seconds left. The play lifted the football team past Lompoc and to the CIF Southern Section Division 4 finals.
Three months later, the day after Valentine’s Day, the school showed why it loves giving the ball to Humphreys late.
Humphreys produced the go-ahead basket for the boys’ basketball team by driving to his right with 33 seconds to go. This one assured CdM got out of the first round of the Division 1A playoffs on Wednesday.
The youngsters came up big, as sophomore DJ Rodman finished with 30 points and four three-pointers to lead host CdM to a 67-64 win against El Toro.
The Sea Kings (21-7) advanced to the second round to play at Compton Dominguez (21-5-1) on Friday. They almost never made it.
El Toro, an at-large team, gave the Pacific Coast League champion Sea Kings a contest. Both coaches expected the game to go down to the wire, and it did. No team led by more than four points.
While the Sea Kings move on, the game marked Coach Todd Dixon’s final one at the helm of El Toro (18-10). After 21 seasons with the Chargers, Dixon is heading to Santiago Canyon College to start its basketball program.
“It hasn’t set in,” Dixon said of no longer coaching the Chargers, which he led to 10 league titles and a 449-158 overall record. “I think in a week it might start to set in.”
Dixon hoped Wednesday night would not be his last game with the Chargers.
They had a chance to take the lead right after Humphreys’ basket put CdM up, 65-64. El Toro went for a three-pointer, and Demetrius Jackson missed for the first time in the fourth quarter. He finished with 12 points.
Rodman grabbed the defensive rebound, and El Toro fouled him, sending him to the free-throw line at the 11-second mark. Rodman converted both free throws, and he went six of seven from the charity stripe, including making all four in the fourth quarter.
Down three, El Toro tried to tie it, but Jackson’s off-balance three-point attempt was off the mark. Time expired before the Chargers’ final three went up, and CdM Coach Ryan Schachter was happy that the shot in the waning seconds didn’t burn the Sea Kings as it did last week, when Northwood’s Jacob Huynh hit a game-winning three to beat the host Sea Kings, 53-51, handing CdM its lone loss in league.
“We wanted to foul,” said Schachter, who wanted to send the Chargers to the free-throw line for a one-and-one situation. “That one didn’t look as good as the one Jacob Huynh hit.”
The Sea Kings, who got 14 points from Kevin Kobrine, survived this one. They had to come back to do it against the fourth-place team from the South Coast League.
Bruce Haidrey led El Toro with 18 points, and Maxx Hazely added 14.
There were six lead changes in the fourth. Jackson kept hitting shots, making his first three in the fourth.
With 62 seconds left, El Toro took a 64-63 lead. The Sea Kings forgot to box-out on the second free-throw attempt by Jackson, and Noah Aguilar grabbed the miss and easily scored in the paint, giving him 17 points.
The Chargers went ahead by scoring three points in a two-second span. Then it was CdM’s turn to respond, and Humphreys attacked the basket and the 6-foot-3 guard delivered.
“He came up huge,” Schachter said of Humphreys, who finished with nine points. “It’s my first win against [Dixon]. He’s a great coach, one of the best in Orange County. But he’s going on to a [junior] college program.”
As for the Sea Kings, they are still alive in the postseason. They can thank Humphreys.
CIF Southern Section Division 1A playoffs
First round
Corona del Mar 67, El Toro 64
SCORE BY QUARTERS
El Toro 13 – 17 – 20 – 14 — 64
CdM 14 – 18 – 20 – 15 — 67
ET – Haidrey 18, Aguilar 17, M. Hazely 14, Jackson 12, L. Hazely 3.
3-pt. goals – Haidrey 3, Aguilar 3, Jackson 1.
Fouled out – None.
Technicals – None.
CdM – Rodman 30, Kobrine 14, Humphreys 9, Coffman 5, Jones 5, Schwartz 4.
3-pt. goals – Rodman 4, Humphreys 1, Coffman 1, Jones 1.
Fouled out – None.
Technicals – None.
Twitter: @ByDCP
