Boys’ Basketball: Chargers edge Sailors
A year ago, the Edison High boys’ basketball team and Newport Harbor closed out Sunset League play. The outcome decided whether the Chargers would take second outright, or whether they would share it with the Sailors.
The programs wound up splitting second.
The teams met on Friday, and the Chargers showed why they don’t plan to finish second to anybody in league this season.
The Sailors have been the only team in league to play Edison tough, yet it wasn’t enough to pull off the upset.
Edison held on for a 62-60 win at home to improve to 8-0 in league.
Like the first time the Chargers and Sailors played three weeks ago, this one went down to the wire. There would be no overtime this time around, as Newport Harbor point guard Collin Pipkin lost the ball in the waning seconds and was unable to take a possible game-tying shot.
“When you run into a team like that, they’re never out of it,” Edison Coach Rich Boyce said of the Sailors. “When [we were up], 60-51, my guys are celebrating, I’m going, ‘Are you kidding me? These guys are going to come back, come back,’ and as usual, they did.”
The Chargers took the nine-point lead with 3:13 left to play, right after the referee had enough of Newport Harbor Coach Bob Torribio complaining. The ref called a technical foul on Torribio, who was unhappy about a block that looked like it should have been a goaltending call.
“A five-point swing!” yelled Torribio, who saw Edison’s Nate Matthews (11 points) bury a wide-open three-pointer to give the Chargers a 58-51 lead at the 3:55 mark, 20 seconds after Josh Phillips (11 points, 10 rebounds, four blocks) swatted a shot. “How did you miss that?”
The ref didn’t miss what Torribio said, and he got T’d up. Randall Walker, who finished with 24 points, capitalized on the technical. He made two free throws and the Chargers went ahead, 60-51.
Even though the Sailors outscored Edison, 9-2, the rest of the way, thanks to a three-pointer by Dayne Chalmers (16 points) and Sam Barela (nine), a layup by Brad Siegel (11) and a free throw by Pipkin (12), the technical came back to haunt Torribio. His team still had 4.8 seconds to make something happen, tie it and send it into overtime, or win it.
After Walker airballed a free throw during a one-and-one situation, Barela inbounded the ball to Pipkin. The senior quickly dribbled past midcourt, but once he got inside the three-point line, Pipkin tried to dribble behind his back and Matt Serven came up with the steal to end the game.
“I would take the ball in Collin’s hands every game we’ve ever played,” Torribio said. “Four seconds left, the ball is in Collin’s hands, and even if we had a timeout, I wouldn’t call one to take it away from. We trust him to make a good decision. You know, they got about what, 12 basketball players on that team from all over. They’re good. At the end of the game there, they’re going to have guys that know how to make a play, and they did. They collapsed on our best player and got a steal.”
The turnover allowed the Chargers to wrap up their final regular-season game at home with a win.
Two more contests remain in league, both next week, and the Chargers can claim first place with a win at defending champion Los Alamitos on Tuesday. The Chargers lead 7-1 Los Alamitos by one game. They are closing in on their second league title in three seasons.
A league crown isn’t all Edison wants to win. The program has come up short in the section finals the past two seasons, and Edison, at 21-3 overall and ranked No. 15 in the CIF Southern Section Division 1AA poll, is playing at a championship-caliber level with the postseason right around the corner.
While Edison keeps winning in league, it has been a tough week for the Sailors.
Newport Harbor dropped its second in a row, both to the top two teams in league. The Sailors lost at Los Alamitos, 64-49, on Wednesday, and two days later, they find themselves in fourth place in league at 3-5, a game behind third-place Huntington Beach.
Last season, the Sailors went 6-4 in league. The best they can do is go 5-5 this season.
“I’d like to think so,” Torribio said he likes the Sailors’ chances of qualifying for the Division 2AA playoffs if they beat Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach next week. “We’re still in contention for third place. I know Huntington [Beach] controls [its] own destiny.”
Sunset League
Edison 62, Newport Harbor 60
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Newport Harbor 13 – 13 – 14 – 20 — 60
Edison 18 – 13 – 14 – 17 — 62
NH – Chalmers 16, Pipkin 12, Siegel 11, Barela 9, Blaine 8, Bashore 2, Delgadillo 2.
3-pt. goals – Blaine 2, Siegel 1, Chalmers 1, Barela 1.
Fouled out – Blaine.
Technicals – Coach.
E – Walker 24, Phillips 11, Matthews 11, Slavik 6, Atencio 5, M. Serven 3, Silva 2.
3-pt. goals – Walker 2, Matthews 1, Atencio 1.
Fouled out – None.
Technicals – None.
Twitter: @ByDCP
