After Win, Moore Tells Players of Retirement : Prep basketball: Victory over Saugus puts Quartz Hill on brink of first outright league title in coach’s 23-year tenure.

On a night when the dean of Golden League coaches announced his retirement, his team moved one step closer to making school history.

This was the message Quartz Hill High basketball Coach Don Moore left for his charges after an important 56-45 win over visiting Saugus on Tuesday night: “You guys are one of the greatest groups I’ve ever had, and you’ll be my last.”

The Rebels (17-4 overall) moved to 6-1 in league play, two games ahead of Canyon and Palmdale (both 4-3 in league play) with just three games to play. The league title, which would be the Rebels’ first outright, is a virtual certainty.

“I told you we were gonna win it,” said Moore, 59, who has been the basketball coach at the school for 23 years.

It took some time for the Rebels to rev, but it was classic Quartz Hill basketball in the fourth quarter.

Saugus (13-9, 2-5) had dictated the pace of play throughout, keeping the score close and the rhythm steady. No staccato tempo on this night. Rather, Saugus Coach John Clark tightened the reins on his squad and frustrated Quartz Hill.

As a result, Saugus led, 37-35, with seconds left in the third quarter and was working for a final shot.

But there was only so much of this tedious style of basketball that Quartz Hill senior Chris Young could take. He burst out into a passing lane, stole the ball and fed Danny Prince for a driving layin to tie the score at the buzzer.

“I was sick of playing their kind of game,” Young said. “It gets you bored.”

With a toehold on momentum, Quartz Hill scored the first 10 points of the fourth quarter. Of course, it helped that Saugus missed its first 12 field-goal attempts of the quarter. Meanwhile, Young pilfered the ball twice more (he finished with six steals) and made four of four free throws. Prince connected on a three-point shot and Cyril Franklin added three more points. Before Saugus knew what had hit, Quartz Hill finished a 15-2 run and led, 50-39. All that was left was for Moore to sit back on the sidelines and groom his farewell speech.

“We knew we had to pick up the pace,” Moore said.

Clark, meantime, cringed. His team finished the game making just 15 of 55 shots (27.2%) and committed 10 turnovers.

“They probably picked up the intensity in the fourth quarter and that, I’m sure, had an impact,” Clark said. “We don’t shoot the ball, and I think everybody knows that.”

Young, whom Clark called “the best athlete in the league,” finished with a game-high 17 points, including eight of 10 free throws in the final period. Typical of his effort was a three-point basket midway through the third period that shaved a four-point deficit to 33-32.

“He always comes through with one of those when we need him,” Moore said.

Darrell Marshall added nine points off the bench for Quartz Hill and Denny Klein had 10 rebounds.

For Saugus, Greg Yumbar scored a team-high 16 points but was haunted by a second half in which he scored just four points. Put simply, it was not Saugus’ night.

It was, however, Quartz Hill’s. More specifically, it was Moore’s.

“It was fun to coach against him,” Clark said. “I wish him all the luck in the world.”