Boys’ Basketball: Sailors ousted in second round
For the second time in three nights, the Newport Harbor High boys’ basketball team was in the thick of it going into the fourth quarter. The Sailors trailed by two, one less point than they did on Wednesday.
Unlike in their CIF Southern Section Division 2AA playoff opener at Northwood, the Sailors played at home this time.
Being at home did not benefit the Sailors when it came to the final four minutes of a second-round game against Buena Park on Friday.
After cutting the deficit to three with 4:14 left, Newport Harbor went scoreless the rest of the way.
The Coyotes scored the game’s final five points, allowing them to escape with a 53-45 win and move on to the quarterfinals for the third straight season.
Buena Park (23-5) was the second runner-up finisher from a league to face the Sailors, who stunned Northwood, 61-60, on Wednesday, in the postseason. The Dashiell brothers, Cameron and Cedric, prevented Newport Harbor (17-13) from taking down the second-place team from the Freeway League.
Cameron finished with 21 points and four three-pointers. The biggest three belonged to his older brother, Cedric.
Cedric, who missed most of the game because of foul trouble, hit a big shot with 1:50 to go. Cameron helped set it up, driving toward the paint, before flipping the ball back to a wide-open Cedric behind the arc. Without hesitating, Cedric shot it and it went in, putting Buena Park ahead, 51-45.
“I had been struggling the whole night,” said Cedric, who picked up two fouls in the first quarter, his third in the second quarter, and his fourth 1½ minutes into the third quarter. “My teammates just kept egging me on and the coaches just kept egging me on. I have to give it to them because they really had my back when I needed it the most.
“Cameron threw me a great pass, and they all said, ‘Knock it down!’ They’ve been telling me to knock it down all season.”
Cedric, a 6-foot, 230-pound senior who might be going to Yale to play football, knocked it down. He and his brother also knocked the Sailors, an at-large entry from the Sunset League, out of the playoffs.
Coach Bob Torribio’s Sailors failed to do anything offensively on their last six possessions. During the stretch, they missed four shots and turned the ball over twice.
For three quarters, Newport Harbor hit its shots, making 17 of 30 against the No. 5-ranked team in the division. Brad Siegel was responsible for seven of those successful field goals, helping him get to 16 points, and Collin Pipkin had two threes.
Pipkin, who a couple of nights ago scored 23 points to lead the Sailors to their first postseason win since the 2012-13 season, and Siegel never scored in the fourth. Pipkin, a senior point guard, finished with eight points, seven rebounds and six assists.
Only Dayne Chalmers and Zach Blaine made a field goal in the final quarter for Newport Harbor. Chalmers’ layup tied it at 42-42 at the 6:59 mark, and the Sailors’ next basket came with 4:14 remaining. Blaine (nine points) drained a deep three-pointer to cut the Coyotes’ lead to 48-45.
“We play our tails off the entire game, but sometimes our shots stop falling for us,” said Torribio, whose team was outscored, 11-5, in the fourth quarter. “Against a good team like that in the second round of the playoffs, you can’t have too many empty possessions in a row and you can’t give up the ball as many times as we did.”
The Sailors turned the ball over a lot, 17 times. The final turnover came with 16 seconds left, as Elijah Jones-Church dove to the ground to secure a steal.
Jones-Church, who usually is one of the team’s top scorers, only had two points. Jones-Church struggled for most of the game, making one of 10 shots, but he was not afraid to get dirty late.
Cameron Dashiell and Robert Corner picked up the slack offensively. Corner finished with 13 points, 12 rebounds and three steals. He had four points in the fourth, and Dashiell added two points, coming at the free-throw line, where he sealed Buena Park’s trip to the quarterfinals.
The Coyotes travel to No. 4-seeded San Bernardino Cajon (22-5) on Tuesday. Cajon routed Whittier, 67-42, in the second round on Friday.
The Sailors fell short of reaching the quarterfinals for the first time since 1998-99.
CIF Southern Section Division 2AA Playoffs
Second round
Buena Park 53, Newport Harbor 45
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Buena Park 14 – 20 – 8 – 11 — 53
Newport Harbor 16 – 11 – 13 – 5 — 45
BP – Ca. Dashiell 21, Corner 13, Michael 8, Serafin 4, Ce. Dashiell 3, Jones-Church 2, Taylor 2.
3-pt. goals – Ca. Dashiell 4, Corner 1, Michael 1, Serafin 1, Ce. Dashiell 1.
Fouled out – None.
Technicals – None.
NH – Siegel 16, Blaine 9, Pipkin 8, Chalmers 6, Bashore 4, Barela 2.
3-pt. goals – Pipkin 2, Blaine 1, Siegel 1.
Fouled out – None.
Technicals – None.
Twitter: @ByDCP
