Irvine Stunned by Airey

Even when things looked bad Wednesday night, and there were moments when it was downright grim for Capistrano Valley, the one guy who never stopped believing was Tom Airey.

He watched Irvine take a 12-point lead in the first quarter. He saw his team blow an eight-point advantage in the fourth quarter. And he only grimaced a little when the Vaqueros went ahead by two with 13 seconds left.

Then he calmly sank a three-point field goal with five seconds remaining to give the Cougars a 63-62 victory at Irvine that gave them sole possession of first place in the South Coast League.

“I’ve seen us lose too many close games the last two years,” said Airey, a senior guard. “But I couldn’t let myself doubt this one.”

Confident shooters are dangerous shooters. Airey scored 18 of his team-high 22 points in the second half. After missing his only two three-point attempts in the first half, he then made six of eight.

His last one spoiled what was a ferocious comeback by the Vaqueros (16-4, 4-1 in league play). With 2 minutes 50 seconds left an Airey three-pointer to give the Cougars (17-3, 5-0) a 58-50 lead.

From that point, Capistrano Valley, the second-ranked team in Orange County, did little right. Irvine, ranked fourth, scored nine consecutive points. The Cougars helped out with two turnovers and a technical foul.

With 13 seconds left Jado Lee (24 points) drove, fell, and flipped a pass to Brian Linsenmayer for a layup and foul. Linsenmayer’s free throw gave Irvine a 62-60 lead.

“We just set up a play for Tom and, fortunately, it worked,” Capistrano Valley Coach Mark Thornton said.

It was a wise move. After all, Airey is one of the top three-point shooters in the county and has made 86 on the season. In fact, it was his inability to get open for that shot which allowed Irvine to get ahead early.

With Airey bottled up, the Vaqueros controlled things early. They jumped to a 8-2 lead and never trailed in the first half.

But the Cougars clawed back behind the play of reserve center Jeremy Garrett, who scored 10 of his 16 points in the first half. He also had 11 rebounds.

In other South Coast League games:

Mission Viejo 45, Dana Hills 44 (OT)--Eric Sorenson scored with eight seconds left in overtime to give Mission Viejo (3-14, 1-3) the victory.

El Toro 63, San Clemente 53--Scott Senik scored 20 points, including three three-pointers, for El Toro (6-12, 2-2). Marcus Guild scored 18 points for San Clemente (8-10, 2-2).