Boys’ Basketball: CdM opens with easy win

Ski week tends to wipe out any semblance of a home-court edge for the Corona del Mar High boys’ basketball team during this time of the season. With school off this week, students actually showed up to support the Sea Kings in the opening round of the CIF Southern Section Division 3A playoffs.

Sea Kings Coach Ryan Schachter views ski week as more like a preview for spring break for students.

“They aren’t on the slopes,” Schachter said the day before his Sea Kings faced Bellflower. “There’s no snow. All the kids go to the Bahamas or Hawaii during ski week.”

The Sea Kings won’t be joining their schoolmates on some exotic island this week. They have at least another round to play, as the No. 2-seeded Sea Kings advanced to the second round by routing Bellflower, 63-36, on Wednesday night.

While the visitors brought almost as many fans to the gym as CdM, the Sea Kings (21-6) won’t have to deal with their home crowd on Friday. The Pacific Coast League champions will be at No. 15 Ocean View (17-10), which moved on after walloping Los Amigos, 85-54, in its first-round game. Ocean View, which shared the Golden West League title, gets to play at home again at 7 p.m. because it won the pre-flip.

“[Jason] Simco’s watched a lot more film [on Ocean View] than I have,” said Schachter, referring to his top assistant. “I know they have some young talent. They start two freshmen [in Bryson Betti and Paul Head, who went into the postseason averaging 11.9 and 10.2 points per game, respectively].”

The Sea Kings are familiar with Betti, who used to live in CdM. Schachter said he was unsure why Betti, a three-point shooting threat, wound up at Ocean View, before adding that “maybe [Betti] thought Ocean View was a better program.”

Schachter and Simco have built CdM into one of the top programs in Orange County, but the Sea Kings stumbled last season as a No. 4 seed in the second round of the playoffs. This postseason, CdM earned its highest seed in Schachter’s nine seasons at the helm and it looks to avoid another second-round upset.

Sam Kobrine got CdM off to a rousing start in the postseason, finishing with 18 points, four three-pointers, four rebounds and four steals. Kevin Fults contributed 11 points, four rebounds and three steals, while Austin Ridge added 10 points.

The Sea Kings, who reeled off their 12th straight victory, began to roll against Bellflower (9-18) after taking a three-point lead into the second quarter. Seventy-four seconds into the new quarter, CdM distanced itself from the sixth-place team from the Suburban League. Matt Ctvrtlik got two quick points in the paint, and then Ryan Stone went to work. Stone knocked down a three-pointer, and on a fastbreak, the guard went in for a layup, putting CdM up, 18-8.

The shot behind the arc was falling for CdM in the second quarter, as it made its first three threes. Fults and Kobrine each nailed a three. Fults added another three-point play with 43.6 seconds to go before halftime. He drove in for a layup and converted it while Bellflower fouled the senior. Fults made his free throw, enabling CdM to close out the first half on a 7-0 run and take a 31-17 lead into the break.

Fults and Kobrine turned in strong first-half performances, each recording 10 points. Defensively, CdM limited Bellflower to one-for-11 shooting in the second quarter. The Buccaneers’ struggles had a lot to do with point guard Darrell Daniels leaving the court with concussion-like symptoms with 4 1/2 minutes to go in the second quarter.

With Daniels out, Bellflower’s offense couldn’t get into its sets and find any rhythm. During an 11-minute stretch from the second to third quarter, the Buccaneers failed to make a field goal. Ryan Moss’ 6-foot-7 size created problems for the Buccaneers. The CdM center blocked a couple of shots, to go with six points and eight rebounds.

Felix Edwards, who led Bellflower with 18 points, broke his team’s shooting slump when he hit a jumper with 2:46 left in the third quarter. By then, CdM built a 41-23 lead. The hosts pushed the advantage to 25 late in the third quarter after Kobrine and Ridge both drained threes and Fults made a free throw.

Kobrine and Fults, and the rest of the starters, Bo St. Geme, Stone and Moss, got to rest for much of the fourth quarter. Even Schachter toned his demeanor down on the bench. A referee gave him a technical foul at the 3:04 mark in the third quarter when Schachter questioned why there was no foul called when Moss was hit on the head on a putback attempt.

“I won’t say anything about the referees,” Schachter said, before talking about the home crowd. “I wasn’t expecting that many people. I’m happy for the fans coming out. Maybe their plane tickets [for the Bahamas and Hawaii] are for [Thursday].”

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CIF Southern Section Division 3A playoffs

First round

Corona del Mar 63, Bellflower 36

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Bellflower 8 – 9 – 8 – 11 — 36

CdM 11 – 20 – 17 – 15 — 63

B – Edwards 18, Morehead 7, Wheeler 4, Smith 3, Rios 2, Mason 2.

3-pt. goals – None.

Fouled out – None.

Technicals – None.

CdM – Kobrine 18, Fults 11, Ridge 10, Moss 6, Ctvrtlik 5, Stone 5, St. Geme 3, Kleinman 2, Le 2, Coffman 1.

3-pt. goals – Kobrine 4, Fults 1, Stone 1, St. Geme 1, Ridge 1, Ctvrtlik 1.

Fouled out – None.

Technicals – Coach.