Magnolia Impresses No One in One-Sided Loss to Brea
The most stinging rebuke of Magnolia in its 72-50 loss to Brea Olinda on Wednesday night in an Orange League boys’ basketball opener at Brea came neither from the scoreboard nor Sentinel Coach Al Walin’s mouth.
It came from a preteen girl in the Magnolia cheering section who, as the Wildcats took a 21-point lead in the second quarter, turned to her father and asked: “Why did we have to come to this one?”
Indeed, there wasn’t much to root for if you were a Sentinel fan. Brea (12-5, 1-0) had the hot hand early in jumping out to a 30-9 advantage, while Magnolia (14-3, 0-1) appeared flustered on both ends of the floor and failed to mount a serious threat the rest of the way, in what it had hoped would be a statement game.
Magnolia’s Geoffrey Clayton scored 18 points, but 12 of them came in the second quarter after the Wildcats had already built a comfortable lead.
“We didn’t play well, period,” Walin said. “We were sluggish and we just chased them around the court. We’re a better basketball team than we were tonight.”
By contrast, Brea displayed the form that made it a mainstay in the county’s top-10 rankings before dropping out after last week’s overtime loss to Troy.
Ryan Wilber, playing on a sore ankle, hit all three of his three-point attempts in the first half and finished with 11 points for Brea. Landon Lewis converted all eight of his free-throw attempts and led all scorers with 21 points, and Ryan Moore scored 14.
“We came out with a lot of intensity and showed what we’re capable of,” Lewis said. “We played good defense on Clayton, who’s their best player.”
Brea’s perimeter defense was so tight on Clayton that he was continually forced to drive to the basket, where he found limited success. Clayton hoisted airballs on two three-point attempts and thought twice before shooting from the outside again.
Wildcat Coach Bob Terry said he was pleased to pick up his first victory in a league that promises to be much more difficult to win than it was last year, when Brea won the title without a fight.
“Every team in our league is good,” Terry said. “Every team has at least one dominant player. There’s no easy way out. But we’re 1-0 in league and I couldn’t be more pleased with where we’re at, especially with our tough [nonleague] schedule.”
In other Orange League games:
Anaheim 67, Savanna 60--Robert Mendoza scored 17 of his 27 points in the first half as Anaheim (11-5, 1-0) built a 31-26 lead.
Valencia 50, Western 49--Keinan Briggs scored the winning basket with six seconds remaining.
Emmanuel Ortega (16 points) sank two clutch three-pointers as Valencia (6-11, 1-0) erased a five-point fourth-quarter deficit. Western fell to 6-9, 0-1.
