Sailors along atop Sea View

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - As Newport Harbor High boys basketball coach Larry

Hirst mapped out the Sea View League campaign last week, Friday night’s

home game against Laguna Hills was circled on his calendar as a victory.

And, at the beginning, the Sailors indeed played as if they’d scouted

Laguna Hills more than once.

But, after a huge first quarter, it turned into another Sea View

barnburner as Laguna Hills rallied, before the Sailors held on for a

59-50 win.

“If we played hard, we knew what we could do, and I think the first

quarter was evidence of that,” said Hirst, whose team raced to an opening

16-2 lead, before going ahead, 23-5, for its first of two 18-point

advantages in the first half.

Newport Harbor (16-3, 2-0 in league), ranked No. 8 in Orange County,

rode the shoulders of 6-foot-6 junior Tony Melum, who scored a

season-high 28 points, including a pair of electrifying slam dunks to

stimulate the sizable crowd.

“I thought he came out focused and ready to play both ends of the

floor,” Hirst said of Melum, who added 14 rebounds (11 defensive), three

blocked shots, two assists and one steal.

To cap a 6-0 scoring run for Newport Harbor in the second quarter,

Melum knocked away a Laguna Hills pass in the front court, cleared the

ball to half court, then picked it up and drove by himself to the basket,

finishing with a two-handed dunk as the Sailors built another 18-point

lead (31-13).

But Laguna Hills (12-7, 0-2), which lost to highly regarded Woodbridge

in the league lid-lifter Wednesday, 46-43, came back behind guards Jimmy

Vollenhals, Jeff Sherman (18 points) and Chris Lee (13).

Sherman and Lee canned three-pointers late in the second quarter to

spearhead the Laguna Hills rally, in which the Hawks outscored Newport

Harbor, 20-10. The Hawks entered the halftime locker room with momentum

and trailed only 33-28.

In the second half, Laguna Hills pulled to within one point, but the

Sailors never surrendered their lead.

Melum was 3 of 3 from the field in the third quarter (10 of 14 for the contest), including another big dunk, after a big dribble from the top of

the key and big step toward the rim.

Early in the fourth quarter, Laguna Hills’ half-court defense shut

down Newport Harbor’s inside game, forcing the Tars to shoot from beyond

the three-point arc, in which they were 0 of 3 in the quarter’s first

1:50.

That’s when Hirst called timeout as the Hawks crept to within 46-43.

“During the timeout, my assistant coach, Bryan Cottriel, suggested a

set play at that point, and I believe Tony Melum scored (on the ensuing

play) and we never looked back from there,” Hirst said.

Newport Harbor was also led by 6-foot senior Aaron Yarnal (14 points),

whose free-throw streak was snapped at 37 in a row. Yarnal was 4 of 5

from the stripe, missing his final attempt in the fourth quarter. Yarnal

also added four rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Newport Harbor was 9 of 13 from the foul line in the final period as

the Hawks fouled the Sailors every time down in the last three minutes.

Besides Melum and Yarnal, the Tars received 13 points from Erik

Peterson (5 of 6 from the field), while starter Steve Young finished with

four rebounds and two assists.

“We didn’t know what to think of Laguna Hills after (the Hawks) played

Woodbridge so close in the league opener,” Hirst said. “We know how good

Woodbridge is. But we’d seen Laguna Hills twice ... I know it’s an old

coaches’ cliche, but you’ve got to win the home games. I felt we kind of

sneaked up on Irvine (in a league-opening victory Wednesday).”