PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE BOYS’ BASKETBALL : Century Can’t Hit Its Free Throws; Trabuco Hills Wins

Century won the chess match against visiting Trabuco Hills, but lost the free-throw shooting contest badly and wound up losing the game in overtime, 57-54, Friday in the Pacific Coast League opener.

The ninth-ranked Centurions played Coach Greg Coombs’ slow-down game to near perfection and were patient against fifth-ranked Trabuco Hills’ zone. But when it came time to shoot free throws, the Centurions didn’t have a clue--making only 11 of 27, including six for 20 in the second half and overtime.

Meanwhile, Trabuco Hills (13-4, 1-0) made 22 of 27 from the line.

“It was terrible,” Coombs said of his team’s troubles at the line. “We have a very young team with five sophomores. But we have to do a better job (at the line). There’s no excuse for that.”

Century’s most costly misses came at the end of regulation as it clung to a four-point lead in the last 1 minute 30 seconds. Hector Negrete and Gabe Aguirre missed front ends of one-and-ones that could have put away Trabuco Hills.

“We have our work cut out for us,” Coombs said. “We let them off the hook.”

Trabuco Hills forward John Paisley helped take his team off the hook with his second-half play. Paisley scored 13 of his 15 points after intermission and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds. A three-point play by Paisley brought the Mustangs to within 51-50 at 1:52.

Ryan Karnoff’s free throw with 1:28 left tied the score at 51-51, but Century (14-3, 0-1) could have won the game in regulation had Ike Harmon’s eight-foot baseline jumper gone in. Instead, his shot curled around the rim and came out.

Century missed three of four free throws in overtime; Trabuco Hills sank six of seven.

Trabuco Hills also got a boost when Thomas Harmon (15 points, six rebounds) fouled out late in regulation. Harmon’s inside post game was the main reason Mustang Coach Rainer Wulf had his team play zone defense throughout much of the game.

“I have a lot of respect for Thomas,” Wulf said. “He’s very difficult to defend. We were in a gimmick defense where we had two guys on Thomas every time.”

Trabuco Hills dared the Centurion guards to take any shot they wanted outside eight feet, but they rarely accepted the invitation, often holding the ball for minutes at a time.

“We wanted it to be a slow-down game,” Coombs said. “We just missed a lot of shots.”

In other Pacific Coast League games:

Estancia 46, Costa Mesa 42--Zack Richardson scored 14 points, including three three-pointers, for Estancia (10-6, 1-0). Ryan Steck had 16 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists for Costa Mesa (6-9, 0-1).

Laguna Hills 57, Laguna Beach 40--Jessie McDonald scored 21 points and had 10 rebounds, and Jason Charles added 12 and nine assists for host Laguna Hills (6-8, 1-0). Gordon Osborn scored 18 points to lead Laguna Beach (4-11, 0-1).