Sunset League : Ocean View Hits Its Free Throws in 57-50 Win

Ocean View High School made 17 of 23 free throws in the fourth quarter Wednesday night to hold off a late Edison rally in a 57-50 Sunset League win in front of 700 in the Chargers’ gym.

The fifth-ranked Seahawks (2-0, 13-3) had taken some criticism for their one-handed free throw shooting style in recent weeks. But against the Chargers (1-1, 9-6) they made 23 of 30 free throws in all and had few critics.

“We didn’t leave the line without at least one point tonight,” Ocean View Coach Jim Harris said. “Our free throw shooting kept the game from being scary in the end.”

Down by 11 points with 5:30 left in the game, Edison Coach Jon Borchert decided to have his team foul its way back into the game. His strategy came within a few free throws and two critical offensive rebounds of working.

After the Chargers started fouling, they managed to get as close as 53-48 with 34 seconds left. Seahawk guard Blaine DeBrower went to the line and missed the front end of a one-and-one situation but Ricky Butler came down with the rebound for Ocean View. Butler passed to Mike Labat who was fouled and made both free throws.

Edison guard Ken Ammann made a 10-foot jumper to make the score 55-50. Tony Hocker was fouled on the inbound pass with 12 seconds left. He made the first but missed the second of two free throws but Labat got the offensive rebound. He was fouled and made one of two free throws to clinch the win.

“We were down,” Borchert said. “We had to go after them. I read they weren’t making many free throws but they really buried them in the fourth quarter. And when they missed, they came down with those two critical rebounds.”

Labat led Ocean View with 13 points and 6 rebounds. The 6-5, senior made four of six field goal attempts and five of six from the line. Dave Straight and Butler each added 12 points and DeBrower scored 10.

Edison was led by Ammann who led all scorers with 18 points. But he was the only Charger in double figures and was held in check in the middle quarters. After scoring six in the first quarter the 6-foot 2-inch junior was scoreless in the second quarter (when Edison scored just four points) and had just two free throws in the third. He then scored 10 in the final quarter to lead Edison in its come back try. OCEAN VIEW (57)--Butler 12, Labat 13, DeBrower 10, Panzica 4, Straight 12, Hocker 6.

EDISON (50)--Coenen 7, Ammann 18, McConnell 8, Cole 5, Katona 6, Wheelwright 6.

In other Sunset League action:

Huntington Beach 54, Westminster 51--Darren Snow and Anthony Howard each made a pair of key free throws in the final minute as the Oilers (7-6 overall, 2-0 in league) held on for the win.

Snow led all scorers with 18 points. He also had a game-high 11 rebounds. John Danavan added 15 points for the Oilers. Westminster had four players--Tommy Dever, Eric Schurman, Tim Davis and Todd Blan--in double figures, but the Lions were outrebounded, 39-15. Westminster dropped to 3-9, 0-2. WESTMINSTER (51)--Dever 13, Schurman 10, Davis 10, Smith 4, Blan 10, Austin 2, Love 2.

HUNTINGTON BEACH (54)--Howard 9, Hanavan 15, Schutz 8, Snow 18, Vitz 4. Fountain Valley 59, Marina 49--Brent Martin scored 12 of his game-high 24 points in the second quarter as the Barons improved their record to 1-1 in league and 9-6 overall.

Carlos Brisceno added 11 points for Fountain Valley. Freshman forward Steve Guild led Marina (0-2 and 8-9) with 22 points.

MARINA (49)--Craft 4, Pi 4, Georgeson 4, Guild 22, Knuff 7, Medina 3, Crane 1, Neumann 4.

FOUNTAIN VALLEY (59)--Martin 24, Thomas 6, Brisceno 11, L. Zeno 6, Nagle 8, Horner 3, Gordon 1. Marina 6 12 17 14--49 Fountain Valley 12 20 8 19--59