Boys basketball: El Toro wins tough battle, 53-41

Richard Dunn

COSTA MESA - Saturday night’s basketball lesson for Newport Harbor

High wasn’t about ill-timed turnovers or missed free throws on the front

end of one-and-ones.

With gentleman Bill Reynolds seated courtside like a younger John

Wooden, El Toro’s Chargers defeated Coach Larry Hirst’s Sailors, 53-41,

in the championship game of the inaugural Bill Reynolds Classic at

Vanguard University.

When Hirst and El Toro Coach Todd Dixon played under Reynolds, it was

a small-college basketball powerhouse, formerly known as Southern

California College with a 353-185 record under Reynolds.

Among other things, Reynolds said, as Dixon carried a 4-foot trophy

across the hardwood, what he’s most proud of is the fact that coaches

like Hirst and Dixon are such “great role models.”

The game of life is often taught in basketball, and that’s what

Reynolds was getting at. And perhaps the education Hirst is teaching his

2000-01 players is responding to losses.

After all, it’s not how badly you lose, but how you recover and bounce

back.

Besides, Newport Harbor (6-1) played well enough to beat most teams

and stay undefeated, but El Toro (6-0) isn’t like most teams.

“Newport Harbor plays great defense and (the Sailors’ defenders) got

up on our shooters, but I liked our defense. I felt we matched their

intensity possession for possession,” said Dixon, whose squad, ranked No.

5 in the Orange County preseason poll, was led by 6-foot-8 senior center

Matt Green, the tournament MVP and $250 scholarship award winner.

“Coach Hirst said Matt was the X factor and he definitely is the X

factor for us,” added Dixon, whose team secured the lead late in the

first quarter and never trailed again.

In the third quarter, however, Newport Harbor tied it, 32-32, on

all-tournament selection Steve Young’s putback with 2:37 left following a

missed three-pointer.

Young’s basket, two of the rare third-quarter points when El Toro

outscored the Tars, 8-7, capped a rally started by senior Aaron Yarnal’s

three-pointer on a nice feed from slick point guard Greg Perrine, also an

all-tournament choice.

El Toro broke the third-quarter deadlock on a three-point bomb by

all-tournament pick Chris Parish with 1:49 on the clock.

Then, El Toro’s Ashkan Nazeri, a 6-1 senior, converted a layup to end

a fast break with 1:13 to play, giving the Chargers a 37-32 lead.

El Toro never led by fewer than five points in the fourth quarter,

when Newport Harbor missed three front-ends at the line.

“We were within five points and we missed those three front-ends with

one-and-one,” Hirst said. “It will always kill you when you can’t make

free throws.”

During the Sailors’ final-quarter tailspin at the line (they finished

3 of 7 from the stripe), the Chargers dodged most every bullet and built

a double-digit lead, 45-34, until Harbor’s Erik Peterson drained a

three-pointer with 2:20 to play in the game.

Perrine hit two free throws to pull Newport to within 46-39, but El

Toro scored seven straight points in the final 1:30 to close out the

Tars.

“We got stuck on 34 points for a long, long time,” Hirst said. “But I

give credit to El Toro, because (it) took some things away from us. We

definitely didn’t capitalize on a couple opportunities when we got the

ball in. We would travel or throw the ball away. The few chances we had,

we didn’t take advantage of it.”

Tony Melum, a left-handed 6-6 junior, paced Newport with 20 points,

six rebounds (two offensive), three blocked shots, two assists and two

steals.

In the second half, Perrine had four rebounds, one block and one

assist. But the Tars had no answer for Green, who made his first six

shots from the field and finished with 16 points, 11 rebounds (five offensive), two steals, one block and one assist.

In the fourth quarter, El Toro’s Will Brown, a 6-1 sophomore forward,

provided Dixon & Co. with superb play off the bench (seven rebounds, one

block and one steal) as the Chargers outscored the designated hosts,

16-9.

The tournament was started by some of Reynolds’ former players who

“just wanted to say thanks in a way he would appreciate it most,” a

statement read.

Of the eight teams in the pool-play tournament (with the two unbeatens

squaring off in the title game), five of the head coaches played under

Reynolds: Hirst, Dixon, La Sierra’s Andre Smith, Fallbrook’s Mike West

and Rancho Verde’s Randy McAllister.

BILL REYNOLDS CLASSIC

Championship game

El Toro 53, Newport Harbor 41

Score by Quarters

El Toro 19 10 8 16 - 53 Newport Harbor 15 10 7 9 - 41 El Toro - Nazeri 13, Green 16, Fairbanks 2, Tanaka 6, Parish 9, Brown

7.

3-pt. goals - Parish 2, Tanaka 1.

Fouled out - None.

Technical fouls - None.

Newport Harbor - Perrine 6, Peterson 3, Yarnal 5, Melum 20, Diefenbach

2, Young 5, Spigner 0, Pajevic 0, Cameron 0.

3-pt. goals - Peterson 1, Yarnal 1, Melum 1, Young 1.

Fouled out - None.

Technical fouls - None.