Melum fueling budding dynasty

NEWPORT BEACH — Tony Melum still has that fire.

The 2002 Newport Harbor High graduate got a gleam in his eye after his team won Saturday’s eighth annual Newport Harbor basketball alumni tournament.

It’s the second straight alumni crown for Melum, who scored a team-high 18 points to lead his team of 2000-02 graduates past a squad of 2006 graduates, 46-42, in the title game.

“We still talk all the time,” said Melum, who played collegiately at Chapman University and said he still plays basketball every day. “A lot of us still live around here. The competitive spirit, you can’t help it. We’re not joking around. This is happening. Some guys who lose, they’ll say they want to come out here and have fun, but it’s because they lost. The guys who win, we’re not kidding around.

“You’re most competitive with your friends. You can yell at your friends and call them names, and then still go get a drink. That part’s real nice, too.”

Melum, along with Anthony Rentz, Justin Reynolds and John Murray (Class of 2000), as well as Aaron Yarnell and Steve Young (Class of 2001), were repeat champions. This year’s team also added Sean Rorden (’00), a 6-foot-8 presence who helped “Team 8” score most of its points in the paint.

Yarnell scored 14 points in the championship game, while Rorden added six points and Young tallied four. Murray added a late basket for “Team 8,” which never trailed the championship game that consisted of two 15-minute halves.

Melum also smiled when talking about one of the team’s defectors, Danny Pulido (Class of 1997), who played on a different team Saturday but lost in the quarterfinals. Pulido, an assistant coach for the Newport Harbor football team, came back as a championship game referee.

“We lost Danny Pulido, and that was key,” Melum said jokingly with Pulido in earshot. “If he were still on the team, we probably wouldn’t have done very well. That was important.”

Pulido was quick to respond.

“I was the sixth man in the stripes,” he said.

Last year, Melum’s team ended a two-year run by a team led by Justin McIntee (Class of 1992). This year, though, McIntee didn’t play. Tournament Director Jamie Holmes said he hadn’t heard from McIntee, who has collected four alumni tournament championships.

This time around, Melum’s squad had to take out a team of all 2006 graduates, led by Tony Yaghjian and Robert Koon, in the final. Yaghjian scored a game-high 22 points in the game, including two three-pointers, while Koon had 15 points and a trio of three balls.

A three-pointer by Koon, a 2006 Newport-Mesa Dream Team honoree, cut the deficit to 30-26 with just less than nine minutes to go.

Then, a Koon layup cut it to three with just 19 seconds left. But, after Yarnell missed a free throw, Rorden grabbed the offensive rebound and converted a free throw (worth two points) to put his team back up five.

Tim Cramer added a three-pointer for “Team 1,” Shane Vultee scored a basket and James Coder and Dustin Schuler also contributed.

“They were too big for us,” Cramer said. “Our tallest guy is like 6-1. We just couldn’t really knock down as many shots as we hoped. Our [three-pointers] were what got us here in the first place, but they weren’t falling.”

Now it’s Melum who’s thinking big.

“We’re trying to start a dynasty here,” he said.

The Melum-led squad defeated a team led by UCLA volleyball player Jamie Diefenbach (Class of 2004), 27-19, in a semifinal. Diefenbach’s squad also included Chase Cameron, Ben Soza, Eric Nutter and Nick Glassic (all Class of 2003).

In the other semifinal, Koon hit a tie-breaking three-pointer with four seconds left to lift “Team 1” to a 35-29 victory over Pulido’s squad. Also on “Team 4” were Sailors girls’ basketball coach Randy Larson (class of 1972), Jim Dimitri (’73), Kevin Saks (’90), Tom Holbrook (’04), Taylor Young and Alex Orth (both ’05).

Holmes (Class of 1973) used to be the oldest player in his tournament. Now that distinction belongs to Bob Small (class of 1970).

“I’m 56,” Small said, “but I play like I’m 55.”

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or at [email protected].