Brea Tournament : Sunny Hills and Brea Make Final

This season has been a struggle for Brea-Olinda High School’s boys’ basketball team.

The Wildcats, who have won or shared the Orange League title seven of the last eight years, are off to a slow start with a 6-4 record.

But Brea-Olinda’s game looks a bit better this week, and Tuesday the Wildcats defeated La Habra, 67-58, in the semifinals of the Brea-Olinda tournament.

The Wildcats advance to tonight’s 8:15 final, where they will meet Sunny Hills.

“No one said it would be easy,” Brea-Olinda Coach Rick Jones said. “We are slowly coming together as a team, but I’m not sure we are ready to challenge for the Orange League title just yet.”

The Wildcats built a 32-25 halftime lead, only to see La Habra outscore them, 17-10, in the third quarter to tie the score, 42-42.

La Habra (4-4) took an early fourth quarter lead, 44-42, on a pull-up jumper by Eddie Perez, but four Highlander starters--Nelson Bergamo, Anthony Ortiz, David Stevens and Perez--fouled out in the fourth quarter.

Matt Chamberlin led all scorers with 23 points and Keith Walker scored 19, mostly from the outside. Each finished with nine rebounds, as the Wildcats outrebounded La Habra, 41-26.

Brea-Olinda pulled away with a little more than five minutes left when Chamberlin made two baseline jumpers. The second gave the Wildcats a 55-44 lead.

Stevens had 20 points and Perez 18 for La Habra.

In other Brea-Olinda tournament games:

Sunny Hills 71, Buena Park 56--Brian McCloskey scored 25 points to lead the Lancers (9-1). Sunny Hills outscored the Coyotes (6-3), 20-10, in the fourth quarter to pull away. Kevin Grady scored 24 points for Buena Park, which plays La Habra for third place at 6:30 tonight.

El Dorado 76, Whittier Christian 64--Mike Renuade and Chris Facione each scored 20 points to lead the Hawks (5-4) Eric Martin scored 30 for the Heralds (5-3). El Dorado plays Don Lugo for the consolation championship at 4:45 today.