COAST CHRISTMAS CLASSIC : Tustin Manages to Get Past Newport Harbor Into Finals

It would have been easy for Tustin Coach Andy Ground to blame his team’s subpar performance against Newport Harbor Tuesday night on the Tillers’ upset of top-seeded Long Beach Poly Monday.

Instead, Ground gave the Sailors credit.

“They had a good game plan and we didn’t execute,” he said. “But a win is a win, no matter how ugly it is.”

For the second year in a row, the Tillers (9-2) advanced to the finals of the Coast Classic boys’ basketball tournament. This time they beat Newport Harbor, 50-36, at Estancia High.

Tustin’s sophomore guard, Doug Gottlieb, scored a game-high 17 points, and forward Rod Scheuerman chipped in 13 points and 12 rebounds.

Tustin will meet second-seeded Irvine for the championship at 7:30 tonight.

The Tillers had a tough time generating much offense against the Sailors, but Newport Harbor struggled even more. The Sailors (7-3) managed only single digits in three of the four quarters.

In the second quarter, Newport Harbor went more than six minutes without scoring before getting three points in the final 1:27. Tustin led, 23-9, at the half before increasing its lead to 32-16 at the end of the third quarter.

In the fourth, the Sailors pulled to within 32-24 with 5:55 remaining. But clutch free-throw shooting by Gottlieb and Scheuerman, and more of the Sailors’ inconsistency allowed Tustin to prevail.

In other games:

Irvine 62, Corona del Mar 43: Eric Ambrozich scored 21 points and pulled down nine rebounds to lead the Vaqueros (9-2) past the Sea Kings. Greg Wakeham added 15 points for Irvine. The Vaqueros led, 31-17, at the half. Corona del Mar open the third quarter with an 8-0 run to cut the lead to 31-25 with 5:37 left. But Irvine went on a 16-2 run itself to take a 47-27 lead at the end of the quarter, and cruised the rest of the way. Todd Merriman and Eli Wendell scored 10 points each to lead the Sea Kings (6-4).

Estancia 59, Esperanza 51--Senior forward Jim Faulkner scored 17 points to lead Estancia (6-7), which will play Edison today in the fifth-place championship game at 4:20 p.m. Rashaan Clark led Esperanza (7-4) with 17 points.

Edison 52, Long Beach Jordan 48--With the score tied, 35-35, at the end of the third quarter, Micah Kroeger scored 11 of his 14 points in the fourth and Kyle Murphy added four to help Edison (7-3) defeat Long Beach Jordan (5-6). El Modena 71, Santa Ana Valley 63--Mario Perez scored eight of his 14 points and Tyler Wood hit two of his three three-pointers in the fourth quarter, when El Modena outscored Santa Ana Valley, 24-13, to post a come-from-behind victory in the consolation semifinals. Anthony Porter led all scorers with 23 points for Santa Ana Valley.

Savanna 48, Mission Viejo 40--After taking a two-point halftime lead, Mission Viejo managed only 15 points and hit only three of 10 free throws in the second half. Germaine Moore scored 17 points to lead Savanna, which will meet Parkrose (Portland, Ore.) in the 13th-place game.