Quartz Hill Rescued by Prince’s Sidekicks, 69-56 : Prep basketball: Saugus stifles high-scoring guard, but three lesser-known Rebels score in double figures in win.

Three players scored in double figures for Quartz Hill High in a 69-56 Golden League basketball victory over visiting Saugus on Tuesday night.

Dan Prince was not one of them.

“Isn’t that great?” Quartz Hill Coach Steve Hurst said.

Isn’t that odd?

Prince, a 6-foot senior guard and one of the league’s best players, entered the showdown averaging a team-high 20.4 points a game. He is the only Rebel player averaging in double figures and last month was the leading scorer in the Hart tournament with 105 points in four games.

Yet Prince scored only nine points against Saugus, three on free throws during the waning seconds when the game was on ice.

What gives?

“All year long,” Hurst said, “whenever teams have tried to gimmick us or concentrate on Danny, we’ve had other guys step up. We have shown that we have other guys on this team who can play too.”

Three players stepped to the fore to help the Rebels (9-6, 2-0 in league play) maintain a first-place tie with Ridgecrest Burroughs, a 50-38 winner over Antelope Valley.

Forward Ryan Beckstead, averaging 7.9 points entering the game, led all scorers with 21 points. Center Erick Taylor, averaging 4.9 points, scored 12 points and had 13 rebounds. Guard Art Mack, averaging 3.7 points, scored 12 points, including 10 of 10 free throws in the fourth quarter.

“As long as we play team ball and win, I’m satisfied,” Prince said. “I just had a bad shooting game, that’s all.”

That is probably because Saugus (12-5, 1-1) concentrated its efforts on stopping Prince. And Saugus didn’t shoot too well, either. Josh Hinrichs led the Centurions with 20 points, but starters Mike Williams and Brad Collar were held scoreless. Only five players scored for Saugus.

“I think Quartz Hill outhustled us and they (wanted the win more than) us,” Saugus Coach John Clark said. “They played like a hungry team.”

That was about the size of it, Hurst said.

“Our team was excited about playing a team with three (good) offensive players,” Hurst said. “We felt we could beat them on our own court and we wanted to.”

The Rebels led, 44-42, after three quarters but stretched the advantage to 52-42 with an 8-0 run at the start of the final period.

Chris Hernandez missed a chance to reverse Quartz Hill’s momentum during the run by stealing a pass and zeroing in for a breakaway two-handed dunk. Hernandez missed, however, and was whistled for a technical foul for hanging on the rim.

A basket would have cut Quartz Hill’s lead to seven. Instead, after Prince made one of two technical foul shots, Quartz Hill led by 10.