Prep Basketball : Sunset League Roundup : Fountain Valley Ties Up League Race With Comeback

Fountain Valley High School scored eight consecutive points in the final 2 minutes of play to defeat Huntington Beach, 72-64, Friday and create a three-way tie for the Sunset League championship.

Despite the loss, Huntington Beach, Ocean View and Edison are the co-champions of the six-team league with 7-3 records. Edison will advance to the Southern Section 5-A playoffs as the league’s No. 1 entry, followed by Huntington Beach (No. 2, 5-AA playoffs) and Ocean View (No. 3, 5-A).

School administrators used a coin flip to determine the team’s designations for the playoffs that begin Wednesday. Edison earned the top designation when Coach Jon Borchert was the odd man among the trio of coaches in a three-way coin flip.

Then, another coin flip was used to determine the No. 2 and No. 3 bids. Jim Harris, Ocean View coach, called “heads” and Huntington Beach got the second bid.

“We play two and a half months and then decide things by flipping a quarter,” said Roy Miller, Huntington Beach coach. “At worst, I saw us losing the game, losing the flips and having to play Saddleback or Mater Dei on the round in the first round.”

Edison (14-12, 7-3) is guaranteed a home game in the first round.Ocean View (17-7, 7-3) is guaranteed a road game by losing the flip. Pairings will be announced Sunday at the Southern Section office in Cerritos.

Of course, Huntington Beach (12-11, 7-3) could have avoided the suspense by winning its season finale against Fountain Valley and claiming its first league title since 1985 outright.

But Fountain Valley (18-6, 6-4) outplayed Huntington Beach in the second half and gained some much-needed momentum going into the playoffs after losing four of its last five games before beating the Oilers. Fountain Valley is expected to gain an at-large entry into the playoffs.

Mike Cook and Doug Weaver, the standout receivers on Fountain Valley’s Division I championship football team, played big roles on the basketball court. Weaver made four three-point shots and finished with 16 points. Fountain Valley made seven three-point shots.

Cook had 12 rebounds and scored nine points, including a breakaway layup with 29 seconds remaining to push Fountain Valley ahead, 70-64. Center Mike Merli added 18 points in what Coach Dave Brown called his best game of the season.

“That was a good win in a big-time game,” Brown said. “We’ve shown the ability to come back all year long and did it again tonight.”

Huntington Beach was cruising with a seven-point lead in the second quarter but the Oilers also had three starters with three fouls each. Fountain Valley trimmed the deficit to a point, 33-32, at halftime, and Merli gave the Barons their first lead to open the second.

“We had a chance to put them away in the first half, but they got back in it and that was the key to the game,” Miller said. “We didn’t contain their inside game, and they shot a lot better than the first time we played them.”

Forward Jeff Long led Huntington Beach with 21 points and scored 14 of the Oilers’ 31 points in the second half before fouling out.

Edison 62, Westminster 36--Art Baird scored 14 points and Tom Tyler and Brian Murphy each added 10 points as Edison (14-12, 7-3) earned a share of the league championship.