SOUTHERN SECTION BOYS’ BASKETBALL PLAYOFFS : Sea Kings Use Their System to Earn Title

Forget most of that talk about Corona del Mar’s new up-tempo offense.

When it really counted, the Sea Kings relied on their tried-and-true system of patient offense and pressure man defense to defeat Playa del Rey St. Bernard, 47-46, in the Southern Section Division IV-AA championship game Friday night at Estancia High School.

The victory marked Corona del Mar’s first section title since 1981, when the Sea Kings won the 3-A championship, and ended the title game frustration of Coach Paul Orris. He had guided Corona del Mar (17-12) to the finals in 1989 and 1990, only to lose close games to Trabuco Hills and Goleta Dos Pueblos.

“Get that banner ready,” an exhausted but elated Orris told a Sea King booster when it was over. “Get that banner now .”

Corona del Mar earned this championship flag by adding another element into the traditional Sea King mixture: clutch free-throw shooting.

St. Bernard (13-15) rallied from 31-22 third-quarter deficit to get within 41-39 with 4 minutes 41 seconds left in the third quarter. From that point, Corona del Mar toughened its defense and made four consecutive free throws--two each by Dan MacMillan and Chris Quinn--to extend the lead to 45-39 with 2:17 left.

The lead was 45-40 with less than two minutes left when the Sea Kings went into a delay offense. St. Bernard allowed the clock to run down to 1:05 before electing to foul, but before the Vikings could commit the foul, Corona del Mar’s Todd Merriman stepped out of bounds to give St. Bernard the ball.

Terrell Hickmon then hit a three-pointer to make it 45-43 with 45 seconds left and St. Bernard got the ball back with a chance to tie or take the lead when Corona del Mar’s Chris Quinn missed the front end of a bonus situation eight seconds later.

But Merriman then atoned for his earlier mistake, stealing the St. Bernard inbounds pass after the Vikings called their last time out with 21 seconds left. Merriman, Corona del Mar’s leading scorer and student body president, was fouled immediately and took a moment to get inspiration from an unusual source--his shoes--before going to the line.

“I had a lot of the senior class sign my shoes before the game,” said Merriman, whose shoes were covered with ballpoint pen signatures. “I looked down and saw the names of a lot of my friends and said, ‘These are for you guys.’ ”

Merriman didn’t let his classmates or teammates down, making both ends of the one-and-one to make it 47-43. He couldn’t repeat the feat with 13 seconds left after St. Bernard’s Gregory Metoyer missed a three-point shot and the Sea Kings rebounded, leading to another St. Bernard foul, but the first two were enough.

Metoyer’s three-pointer with four seconds left made it 47-46, but the Sea Kings let time expire without inbounding the ball.

Orris made a point of praising each of the Sea Kings for their contribution, and with good reason. While Merriman (13 points) and Quinn (14 points, nine rebounds) were the statistical leaders, Corona del Mar got a top defensive effort from MacMillan and Eli Wendell.

Those two combined to shut down Hickmon in the second half, limiting him to four points, after the Viking guard scored 15 points in the first half. Wendell was especially effective at denying the quicker Hickmon the ball, which frequently brought the St. Bernard offense to a virtual standstill.

Kyle Thompson scored two key baskets on offensive rebounds in the second half, including an over-the-head tip at the third-quarter buzzer to give Corona del Mar a 39-33 lead. Thompson also hit a three-pointer in the second quarter to slow a St. Bernard run.

“Kyle scrambled all over the floor and Quinn gives us so much,” Orris said. “It’s the little things that make the difference in a game like this when both teams are playing conservatively, and everybody contributed something.”

All those little things now add up to one large banner for Corona del Mar.