Ocean View dominates
HUNTINGTON BEACH — It’s been an interesting three-day work week for the Ocean View boys’ basketball team, one that took the Seahawks from one end of the playing spectrum, to the other.
It all began Monday with a home nonleague game against cross-town rival Huntington Beach, continued Wednesday with a key Golden West League game at Segerstrom and concluded Friday with another league contest against visiting Santa Ana.
Ocean View gave up a season-high in points Monday against Huntington in an 81-72 loss. The Seahawks came back Wednesday with a strong defensive performance and scored a 58-55 win over Segerstrom. Friday, they left little doubt to the outcome by rolling to a big lead early in dismantling Santa Ana, 88-41.
The 88 points were a season-high for the Seahawks.
“After the Huntington game, we focused on our next game, ID-ing their top player and taking him out of the game,” Ocean View co-head coach Jimmy Harris said. “I thought we did a nice job of doing that. We did a good job on (Dathon) Spencer of Segerstrom Wednesday. Although he scored 21 points, he was averaging 25 points a game and got his final three points on a late three-point shot. Tonight, No. 33 (Daniel Garcia) came in averaging 18 points and he nearly got that, but he had to take a lot of shots to get his points. Our kids really responded to those challenges.”
Santa Ana’s Daniel Garcia came in Friday’s game averaging 18 points per game and the Seahawks held the 6-foot-4 senior center to just under his average at 17 points.
Ocean View, which improved to 4-0 in league and 13-6 overall, bolted to a 30-12 lead after one quarter and took a 49-20 lead into the half. The Seahawks didn’t let up in the third quarter, either, and took advantage of five-straight Saints turnovers midway through the quarter to build the lead to 75-28 on a lay-in by senior center Trey Gourdine. Junior center Conor Clifford had a one-handed dunk during the 8-0 run. The Seahawks cleared the bench the rest of the way.
A lay-in by Gourdine with 5:34 left in the game gave Ocean View its biggest lead of the game at 83-32.
“As lopsided as it was, we saw a lot of good things happening on the court,” Harris said. “We were moving the ball around really well and sharing it so much better, kicking it out and working for the good shot. We haven’t done that in a few games this year and it was nice to see.”
Senior guard Billy Keller led Ocean View with 14 points and junior guard Robby Weaver, who hit three three-point shots, was right behind Keller with 13. Cristian Rivera also scored in double figures with 10 points.
Keller had 20 points —- his third-straight game of 20 or more points — during Wednesday’s win at Segerstrom. He scored a game-high 27 against Huntington and had a season-high 34 in a 54-41 league win Jan. 14 over Westminster.
Joshua Sanchez had 13 points and Andy McClendon 10 for the Saints, who fell to 0-5 in league.
Next week, Ocean View hits the road for two league games. First, the Seahawks will play at Orange Wednesday (7 p.m.), then go to Loara Jan. 28.
“Those are two big games for us,” Harris said. “Orange is never an easy place to play and Loara is playing really well right now and had a guy (Josh Thomas) who had a big game the other night against Orange. We’ll have to rise to the occasion on defense once again.”
Thomas scored a game-high 31 points and had 17 rebounds during Wednesday’s 80-72 win over Orange. Loara, however, fell from a tie with Ocean View for first place Friday when the Saxons lost, 60-58, to Segerstrom.
Ocean View and Loara were scheduled to play a Jan. 12 game at Ocean View but the game was canceled due to a power outage. That game will be made up sometime in February, Harris said.