Upset plans foiled
Newport Harbor High Coach Bob Torribio drew up how to upset Los Alamitos in a boys’ basketball game.
“To beat teams that are better than you,” Torribio said, “you got to play your tails off, and then you got to make shots. You got make every layup. You got to shoot 50% from beyond the three-point line, and you better convert better than 80% free throws to beat a good team like that.”
The Sailors fell way short of executing that game plan in a Sunset League opener on Friday. Torribio said his team really had to be perfect at home against the defending league champion Griffins, who blew out the Sailors, 60-30, handing them their worst league setback in three seasons.
Los Alamitos, which went undefeated in league last season, only has one blemish this season, a nonleague loss to Canyon. The Griffins (15-1, 1-0 in league) ripped off their 11th straight league win.
Newport Harbor is actually the last team to defeat the Griffins in league, two seasons ago, when the Sailors won at Los Alamitos, 55-54. That is also the only season Torribio saw Los Alamitos fail to win or share the league crown since the Sailors joined the Sunset League in 2006-07.
“Their record says league favorite,” Torribio said of the Griffins, “but the Edison Chargers are pretty darn good.”
The Sailors (7-11, 0-1) have three games before they face Edison, last season’s runner-up. The upcoming three for Newport Harbor are all on the road next week, two in league, against Marina on Wednesday and Huntington Beach on Friday, and then the Battle of the Bay rivalry game against Corona del Mar on Saturday.
The contests against Marina and Huntington Beach are big ones if the Sailors plan to finish again in third place, behind Los Alamitos and Edison. They showed they aren’t on the Griffins’ level.
One basket in the opening quarter is all the Sailors managed to make, and the field goal came on their first possession. Nineteen seconds in, Joey Faris scored in the paint, and for the rest of the quarter, Newport Harbor missed its next eight shots, half of them behind the three-point line.
The Sailors also struggled from the free-throw line. They went to the line a lot, as the Griffins committed a dozen fouls in the first half. Newport Harbor didn’t take advantage, hitting only five of 14 foul shots.
The dismal shooting from the free-throw line continued for the Sailors in the first 2 1/2 minutes of the second half. At a time when Garrett Davis and Nate Harding sparked the team with layups, accounting for two of the first three baskets in the third quarter, the Sailors missed their first four foul shots. If Newport Harbor is successful on those attempts, it opens the second half on an 8-3 run and with some momentum.
The Griffins put away Newport Harbor in the third quarter. Connor Laines came up with a couple of steals leading to fastbreak points, including a layup by Eyassu Worku.
Worku, a 6-foot-2 junior guard, scored eight of his 17 points in the third quarter, helping Los Alamitos take a 51-23 lead into the fourth quarter. The Griffins built that lead, even though four of their starters were in foul trouble.
“We always seem to be in foul trouble in this gym,” said Los Alamitos Coach Eddie Courtemarche, whose team went to an uncharacteristic zone defense to keep forwards like Ryan Kusch (10 points, eight rebounds, two blocks) and Jack Kaub (six points, nine rebounds, one block) in the game.
The size of Kaub (6-7) and Kusch (6-4) created problems all night for the Sailors, who shot 27.5% from the field. Charlie Stassel led Newport Harbor with eight points and five rebounds, while Davis finished with seven points.
One highlight for the hosts came with 40 seconds to go in the first half. Stassel stole the ball near midcourt and finished the play with a dunk.
“It’s not very often … when you’re down 20 [you can] make the crowd go crazy,” Torribio said.
Sunset League
Los Alamitos 60, Newport Harbor 30
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Los Alamitos 15 – 19 – 17 – 9 — 60
Newport 4 – 10 – 9 – 7 — 30
LA – Worku 17, Kusch 10, Laines 8, Wirth 8, Kaub 6, Yamada 3, Makiyama 3, Pagett 3, Goen 2.
3-pt. goals – Wirth 2, Makiyama 1, Pagett 1, Worku 1, Yamada 1.
Fouled out – None.
Technicals – None.
Newport – Stassel 8, G. Davis 7, Faris 5, C. Davis 4, Harding 4, Pipkin 2.
3-pt. goals – Stassel 2, C. Davis 1.
Fouled out – C. Davis.
Technicals – None.