Edison tops Huntington Beach, earns share of Sunset League title

Having gone undefeated through the first seven games of its Sunset League schedule, it was difficult for the Edison High boys’ basketball team to fathom any possibility outside of winning an outright league championship.

A narrow home loss to Los Alamitos ended the Chargers’ perfect run. When Edison hit the road, it was flat-out dominated in a 15-point defeat to Fountain Valley.

Suddenly, what had seemed to be a foregone conclusion with three games remaining was anything but that. Edison had to get the job done on the road against a Huntington Beach team looking to play spoiler and win for the first time in league on Thursday night.

The Chargers got back on the winning track just in time. Senior guard Matt Palma had a game-high 22 points, and Edison defeated Huntington Beach 59-45 to earn a share of the league title.

Edison (20-7, 8-2 in league) will share the league crown for the second year in a row. Newport Harbor (21-6, 8-2) defeated Los Alamitos 48-47 on Thursday to finish tied for first place.

The Chargers and Sailors are in different playoff divisions, so Edison coach Rich Boyce said both teams will enter the postseason as No. 1 seeds out of the league. Edison will be in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 bracket, while the Sailors are in Division 2A.

“Of course we wanted to go undefeated,” Chargers senior point guard David Atencio said. “When we lost one, we were like, ‘OK, we want to go by ourselves.’ Then we lost again in a tough one [at Fountain Valley].

“At least we got the league title. We can throw up another banner. Now, we’re just looking to get momentum in the playoffs.”

Huntington Beach (2-24, 0-10) played almost exclusively through Cade Ortiz in the first quarter. The senior guard had seven points over the first six minutes, leading his team to a 9-7 lead at the end of the period.

Edison raised its energy level in the second quarter. The Chargers looked to push the ball up the court, and Atencio found the open man in transition. He had four assists in the quarter, including a pass into the right corner for a Palma three-pointer that lifted Edison to a 24-23 lead with four seconds to go in the first half.

Atencio had 11 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.

Although the Chargers offense got off to a slow start, Palma said that the key to the team’s success is its defense. Senior center Josh Phillips was a rock in that department, grabbing 10 rebounds to go with three blocked shots.

Elsewhere, Spencer Serven and Atencio took turns guarding Ortiz, forcing the Oilers to look for other scoring options in the second half.

“Cade’s a great player,” Palma said of Ortiz. “I thought that Dave and Spence did a good job of locking him down. Over the last three games, our defense just wasn’t there.

“Coach says that you have to carry defense with you. We carried our defense with us here tonight.”

Palma also deserved some of the credit. He had at least five points in every quarter, helping the Chargers build on their slim halftime lead.

“Matty is a big-game player,” Boyce said of Palma. “When the game is big, he just wants to be in that spotlight. There’s something about those guys.

“A lot of times, guys shrink from the spotlight. Not Matty. He wanted the ball, and he did what he had to do for us tonight.”

Aiden Garnett had eight points for Edison. Kaden Headington and Serven each added seven points.

Richard Imagawa scored 12 points for Huntington Beach, all on three-pointers. Dean Vis added five points, seven rebounds and three steals.

*

Edison 59, Huntington Beach 45

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Edison 7 – 17 – 14 – 21 — 59

Huntington Beach 9 – 14 – 3 – 19 — 45

E – Palma 22, Atencio 11, Garnett 8, Headington 7, Serven 7, Sale 2, Phillips 2.

3-pt. goals – Palma 4, Headington 1.

Fouled out – Phillips.

Technicals – None.

HB – Ortiz 15, Imagawa 12, Gagnon 9, Vis 5, Stenlund 2, Johnson 2.

3-pt. goals – Imagawa 4, Ortiz 1, Gagnon 1.

Fouled out – Stenlund, Gagnon.

Technicals – Gagnon.

andrew.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @ProfessorTurner