Capistrano Valley Beats Irvine, 76-49 : McCorkle Plays 19 Minutes, Scores 24

Capistrano Valley High School played almost half of the Southern Section 5-A boys’ championship game Saturday with leading scoring Scott McCorkle watching intently from the sideline.

McCorkle got himself in foul trouble in the second quarter and played only 19 minutes of the 32-minute game.

It certainly wasn’t an ideal situation for the Cougars.

Capistrano Valley hardly missed a beat, though, and buried Irvine, 76-49, to win the 5-A title in the Los Angeles Sports Arena.

McCorkle had a game-high 24 points in 19 minutes. But it was the Cougars’ overall game--defense, a relentless fast break and near flawless ballhanding--that produced the wide margin of victory.

“I just thought they were just the superior team,” Irvine Coach Steve Keith said.

It was close for a while, but Capistrano Valley, which had just five turnovers, ran away from Irvine by outscoring the Vaqueros, 14-1, in the first 4:30 of the second quarter. Capistrano Valley pushed a 14-13 first-quarter lead to 28-14 and Irvine never had a chance.

It was the third time Capistrano Valley had beaten its South Coast League rival. Only in the teams’ first game was it close. The Cougars won the previous meetings by one and 23 points.

Capistrano Valley (24-4) advances to the state Division I playoffs, which begin Tuesday. Irvine (24-6) will likely earn an at-large berth to the state tournament.

This was Irvine’s first winning season in the 11 years since the school has been playing varsity basketball.

Despite being bench-ridden for much of the second and third quarters, McCorkle led Capistrano Valley’s scoring barrage by making 10 of 16 shots from the field. He was three for three from three-point range and also showed great hang time on a gliding, reverse layup off the break.

However, he was on the bench with two fouls when Capistrano Valley made its second-quarter run. In his place, guards Bill Mazurie and Chris Kostoff led the spurt.

“McCorkle goes out of the game and they still take off on us,” Keith said. “It’s an indication of how good they are.”

Mazurie and Kostoff added 15 and 14 points, respectively. They each had four assists.

Bryan Allred, a guard, had 13 points and John Molle, a forward, 12 to lead Irvine.

But it wasn’t nearly enough as Capistrano Valley pushed a 33-23 halftime lead to 59-37 at the end of the third quarter.

Capistrano Valley was able to break the game open primarily because of good defense, stripping the ball away and starting numerous fast breaks.

But it certainly didn’t hurt that the Cougars were also able to pick up the pace in the second quarter and bring a patient Irvine team out into a fast-breaking game.

“I knew our coach (Mark Thornton) wanted us to push the ball up,” Kostoff said. “I think (Irvine) got tired out there. We just kept running and then Scott came back in the third quarter and that helped us.”

McCorkle scored eight of Capistrano Valley’s first 13 points in the third quarter.

And just to be sure Irvine didn’t get any closer late in the game, he sank a jumper then followed a moment later with a three-pointer to give Capistrano Valley a 64-40 lead a minute into the fourth quarter.

“We just played really well tonight in all facets of the game,” Thornton said. “We did the same things we’ve tried to do since the beginning of the year. This time we played a little more up-tempo with more full-court defense.”

Keith said he wasn’t surprised by the outcome.

“I tried to see the glass as being half-full going into the game,” he said. “I just thought they were a vastly superior team. They are a little bigger and shoot a little better.”

And even with McCorkle sitting out, Capistrano Valley made that fact very evident.

“I can’t remember a game where we were in a mode like that,” Keith said. “They just took us out of the game.”

SOUTHERN SECTION TITLE GAMES Results of Southern Section boys’ basketball title games Saturday at the Los Angeles Sports Arena:

5-AA Millikan 62 Saddleback 59 5-A Capistrano Valley 76 Irvine 49

3-A Trabuco Hills 59 Corona del Mar 55 2-AA Whittier Christian 69 Banning 67 2-A Santa Clara 78 Orange Lutheran 54