Aliso Niguel Rallies, Edges Laguna Beach

J.J. Sola, the county’s leading scorer, drilled a three-pointer with no time left to give Aliso Niguel a 60-57 victory over Laguna Beach Wednesday night in a Pacific Coast League boys’ basketball game.

The victory capped a furious comeback by the Wolverines (11-7, 2-0), who trailed, 52-42, with five minutes to play.

Laguna Beach (12-6, 1-1) had a chance to win the game. The score was tied 57-57 with 28 seconds left to play, but the Artists had the ball. Chris Sirianni let the clock run down to 10 seconds, drove to the middle of the lane but misfired on a six-footer with four seconds left.

Wolverine guard Drew Parkin got the rebound and called timeout with 1.5 seconds remaining. The ball was inbounded from the side; Sola caught it from 23 feet, turned and hit the winner.

“Even when we were down by 10, there was just no way we’re going to lose that game,” said the 6-7 Sola, who led all scorers with 30 and also had 10 rebounds.

“I didn’t know how far out I was; I thought I was a couple of feet behind the [three-point] line. I just knew I had to shoot with so little time.”

Aliso Niguel Coach Ken Goldstone said the winning play was a planned play--somewhat.

“I told them if we could not get the ball to Nathan Hair [16 points] to find J.J.,” Gladstone said. “ But he was higher out than I thought.”

Both teams had the chance to score knockout blows. Laguna Beach had an early 11-5 lead in the first quarter, but soon grew stagnant on offense; only Sola and Hair could score consistently.

Laguna Beach, led by B.J. Jameson with 23 points, seemed poised to control the game in the second half. The Artists ruled the rebounds (35-21), especially 6-7 center Nick Reynolds, who had 18 boards.

But Laguna Beach didn’t always hang on to the ball (17 turnovers), shot only 39.5% from the field (19 of 48) and could not sustain the defensive pressure down the stretch that got them their 10-point lead.

“We didn’t do a good job of stopping them from catching the ball [for easy shots] late,” Artist Coach Bret Fleming said. “And missing our free throws [15 of 24] was major.

“We had a chance to put the game away, but we didn’t.

Not too worry, Laguna Beach will get another shot at Aliso Niguel later in the season.

If their collective hearts can take it.