SUNSET LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Marina Upsets No. 2 Ocean View

Marina and Ocean View high schools went at it with no holds barred, but no hard feelings, in a Sunset League game Friday night at Ocean View.

The teams traded elbows and no-so-subtle shoves in a rough-and-tumble game.

Marina survived the physical play best, posting a 62-61 victory, upsetting Orange County’s second-ranked team.

The Vikings won by being tougher in the trenches--in this case, the paint.

“If you stood back in this game, you were going to get beat up,” Marina Coach Steve Popovich said.

Cherokee Parks, Marina’s 6-foot-11 center, seemed to be in his element, battling Ocean View’s aggressive front line of Jim Gwaltney, Marcel TenBerge and Darren Ernst.

Parks finished with 22 points, 17 rebounds and six blocked shots to lead Marina (12-8 overall, 4-1 in league play).

“He’s used to it,” Popovich said of Parks, who played against the nation’s roughest and toughest at the Nike Camp in Princeton, N.J., last summer. “Wait until he gets 20 more pounds on him; they won’t be able to move him.”

Ocean View had enough problems contending with Parks, a junior whose three-point play with 1:04 left in the game gave Marina a 59-54 lead.

Darren Fields, who had nine points for the Vikings, made three of four from the free-throw line in the final 39 seconds as Marina held on for the victory.

It was Marina’s first victory over Ocean View since the 1986-87 season, when Mark Georgeson played center for the Vikings. He is now playing at Pepperdine.

The halftime score was 26-26, but Marina took the lead when Parks dunked a lob pass from Fields early in the third quarter.

The Vikings then began to pull away midway through the quarter. Sean Haselrig, who had 13 points, scored on a rebound basket, Travis Boyd hit a short jumpshot off a fast break, then followed with another jumper and Marina led, 38-31.

The Seahawks rallied, but Marina built the lead back to 50-43 before Ocean View came back once again.

The Seahawks climbed to within two, 56-54, but Parks put back a missed free throw, was fouled and made the free throw for a 59-54 Marina lead.

But Ocean View rallied one final time.

A three-pointer by Greg Evans with three seconds left cut the lead to 62-61. Marina had to call a timeout to prevent a five-second violation, then managed to get the ball in and run out the final seconds on the second try.

Gwaltney led Ocean View (12-7, 4-1) with 22 points. Evans added 14 and TenBerge 10 for the Seahawks.