Athlete of the Week: Phillips’ grades up, as are Sailors’ wins
A year ago, Brandon Phillips wasn’t playing for the Newport Harbor High boys’ basketball team. He mostly played with adults inside a gym a couple of miles away from campus.
The court at the fitness center was so narrow and short that it only accommodated up to eight players at a time. When a four-on-four pick-up game would end, one question the older players always seemed to ask Phillips was, ‘How’s your high school team doing?”
Phillips was honest.
“I’d have to say I’m not on a team,” Phillips said.
Grades got in the way of Phillips last season. He said he was academically ineligible to play for the Sailors.
With no practice or game to go to when school let out, Phillips found himself a lot at the 24 Hour Fitness in Costa Mesa last winter. It was there that he learned a valuable lesson. The guys who struggled to guard Phillips told him to make the most of his high school experience.
“It showed me that my bad decisions will affect me in the future and that I really want to play in high school again,” Phillips said. “They would give me advice [like], ‘Keep your grades up.’
“I’ve been on top of my grades, doing my homework. I think I’ve matured.”
Phillips has grown up, if you talk to his coach, Bob Torribio. He had Phillips as a student in his World History class two years ago as a sophomore, back when Phillips was quiet.
“I think he talks to me more now than he did [that] entire year in my classroom,” Torribio said.
Phillips can talk to Torribio these days because he made it back to the Sailors this season, his final one at the school. Phillips’ grades are up, and so are Newport Harbor’s wins from the previous season.
Through the first 17 games, the 6-foot-4 senior has been a force on both ends of the court for Newport Harbor. The Sailors are 14-3, winning at the kind of pace the program hasn’t seen in 17 years, because of Phillips.
“A great luxury [for] a coach is to know that you got a kid that’s athletic enough to guard anybody on the other team,” Torribio said. “Whether it’s a point guard, or a big man, or a post [player], or a wing [player], it’s always been Brandon’s assignment all season to guard the other team’s best player, and he does a great job.”
Phillips is also a threat on offense. He can finish down low and hit an outside shot. He is averaging 10 points per game, and in the last four games, Phillips has reached double figures each time.
He is coming off two strong performances, one in a big win and another in a tough loss.
Phillips said his best game of the season took place in the final of the Santa Maria Holiday tournament, where he made the all-tournament team. He finished with 17 points in the Sailors’ 75-41 rout of host Santa Maria on Dec. 30.
Six days later, Phillips reached 17 points again, this effort in a 51-48 setback at home to Corona del Mar in the Battle of the Bay rivalry game. The Sailors led from the start, until the 49-second mark in the fourth quarter, when CdM evened the score at 48-48.
With seven seconds to go, the Sailors then fell behind for the first time in Wednesday’s game. They gave up a game-winning three-pointer and the Sailors’ 12-game winning streak ended. Another streak continued for Newport Harbor, it dropped its eighth consecutive game to CdM.
“I think if we would’ve made a couple of more free throws and been more consistent from the three-point line, we would’ve pulled it off,” said Phillips, whose team converted 11 of 19 free throws and only one of 11 three-pointers.
“We’re very motivated [to bounce back]. Coach says the most important game is the next game.”
The next game for the Sailors is Friday’s Sunset League opener at Fountain Valley at 7 p.m. They swept the two-game series against the Barons last season, helping the Sailors finish third in league for the second time in a row.
The Sailors have loftier goals in league this season. The two teams to beat in league are Los Alamitos and Edison, which shared the league title last season. Both Los Alamitos, ranked No. 15 in the CIF Southern Section Division 1AA poll, and Edison, No. 4 in Division 2AA, boast 13-3 records, one fewer win than the Sailors, No. 14 in Division 2AA.
“I think they’re really good,” Phillips said of the Griffins and Chargers, “but I think we’re right up there with them.”
Phillips is the kind of player who can be a difference maker for the Sailors when they face Los Alamitos and Edison. Newport Harbor last beat the Griffins in 2012-13 and the Chargers in 2007-08.
With Phillips, the Sailors have three more wins than last season. Newport Harbor is also 10 wins away from tying the school’s single-season record for victories.
There are 11 games left in the regular season, 10 in league. Torribio reminded Phillips and the rest of his players to move on from the CdM contest.
“Don’t let seven seconds define the rest of your season,” said Phillips, who is well aware of the special season he and the Sailors are having, and he gets to play with his younger brother, Joshua, a 6-6 sophomore.
“[Torribio has] helped me out a lot. He’s gotten on me to stay on my grades. He’s always motivated me do better.”
When Phillips returned to the Sailors this season, Torribio said that Phillips said all the right things.
“He apologized to his teammates,” Torribio said. “He reminded everybody that it was selfish that he didn’t take care of what he needed to take care of off the court, and he was ready to compete and be unselfish, which is what we’re always preaching around here.
“We’re very proud of what he’s done.”
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Brandon Phillips
Born: July 3, 1998
Hometown: Newport Beach
Height: 6-foot-4
Weight: 185 pounds
Sport: Basketball
Year: Senior
Coach: Bob Torribio
Favorite food: Spaghetti
Favorite movie: “Stars Wars: The Force Awakens”
Favorite athletic moment: “[Winning] the [Oxford Academy tournament championship] game against Whittier Christian.”
Week in review: Phillips finished with 17 points, leading the Sailors to a 75-41 win against Santa Maria in the final of the Santa Maria Holiday tournament. He made the all-tournament team.
