BOYS’ BASKETBALL IRVINE WORLD NEWS TOURNAMENT : Santa Ana Valley Beats Trabuco Hills

Forget Santa Ana Valley’s 6-4 record. When the Falcons have their minds on the game--and keep their minds on the game--they can be as good as any team in Orange County.

Just ask Trabuco Hills. The Mustangs beat Santa Ana Valley by five points last week. But Friday, in the semifinals of the Irvine World News Tournament, the Falcons did the flying, registering a 92-80 victory at University High. Santa Ana Valley will meet Estancia today for the championship.

The difference this time was Santa Ana Valley’s quickness and a full-court press that thoroughly disrupted Trabuco Hills’ offensive rhythm. The Falcons forced 26 turnovers but it seemed like more; Santa Ana Valley had hands on every loose ball, intercepted several inbounds passes for easy lay-ins and raced off to a 22-9 first-quarter lead.

Ike Hampton led the Falcons with 26, but the good news for Santa Ana Valley was the return of Olujimi Mann. After sitting out a week because of a torn thigh muscle, Mann scored 19.

“There were three factors tonight,” Falcon Coach Rich Prospero said. “One, we didn’t use 13 players; two, Olujimi was healthy; and three, we played at our tempo. We gave up some layups but we played our tempo. And one thing we learned last year, when we play our tempo, most area teams can’t keep up with us.”

Trabuco Hills’ center Rob Warnick was scoreless in the first quarter, but wound up with 32 to lead both teams. Junior guard Nick Punto added 15.

Five Mustangs (6-2) scored in double figures, but only six players scored. There was a reason.

“Turnovers,” Trabuco Hills Coach Rainer Wulf said. “It was the one thing we talked about before the game, but it looked like we didn’t talk about it at all. But that’s the way Valley is--they force you to handle pressure. And we didn’t do that too well tonight.”

In the other semifinal game:

Estancia 59, Long Beach Jordan 46--Estancia led throughout the game behind the shooting of Greg Foster, who had 19 points to lead the Eagles. Chris Candlish had 10 points for Estancia, which will play Santa Ana Valley for the championship at 5:30 tonight at Concordia.

In other tournament games:

Capistrano Valley 46, Huntington Beach 37--Jeff Fullbright was the game’s leading scorer with 17 points for Huntington Beach (4-3) in a consolation game.

John Earnest led Capistrano Valley with 14 points. The Cougars (6-4) will play Downey Warren at 8:30 a.m. today in a consolation game at Concordia University.

Downey Warren 50, Marina 47--Alfredo Reyes had 16 points and Guy Long added 15 for Warren (1-8). Steve Bolton had 14 points to lead Marina (1-6).

La Habra 80, Brethren Christian 60--Dan Ploog scored a game-high 26 points and Corey Holbert had 19 for La Habra (3-5), which outscored Brethren Christian, 47-32, in the second half. Kevin Cooper led the Warriors (3-3) with 25 points.

Irvine 85, University 63--Darrell Parker had 24 points, including four three-pointers and Luke Carlson had 20 points for Irvine (3-6), which outscored University, 29-13, in the fourth quarter in the consolation victory. Nathan Scoggin had 14 points for University (3-5).

Kennedy 54, San Ramon California 52--Justin Zuschlag had 17 points and David Hinojos had 14 in a consolation semifinal victory for Kennedy (4-4).

Woodbridge 58, Chadwick 48--Forward Eric Ripley scored 16 points and teammate Todd Semm added 15 to lead Woodbridge in the consolation game.