Sailors Surge Past El Toro on Day of Upsets in Anaheim

The second round of the Anaheim Holiday basketball tournament Thursday at the Anaheim Convention Center took on the flavor of a Gomer Pyle episode.

Surprise, surprise, surprise.

There were three upsets, including Newport Harbor’s 52-43 victory over fourth-seeded El Toro in the featured game of the day.

The Sailors, finalists in the tournament a year ago, will play San Clemente tonight in a 6:20 p.m. semifinal. The Tritons upset top-seeded San Bernardino Pacific, 68-56.

Third-seeded Brea Olinda also lost, 70-58, to Esperanza. Second-seeded Villa Park, a 66-47 winner over Moreno Valley Rancho Verde , was the only seeded team to survive.

El Toro, ranked No. 7 in the county, trailed, 25-16, at halftime against Newport Harbor, but tied the score at 40-40 when point guard Ashkan Nazeri spun through the lane and made a layup with 3:20 to play.

Newport Harbor’s defense tightened in the final three minutes, forcing three turnovers to spark a game-ending 12-3 run.

Junior guard Aaron Yarnall scored five of his game-high 17 points and had a steal during the Sailors’ game-ending run.

“This is probably the best team we’ve seen this year,” Newport Harbor Coach Larry Hirst said. “I think we showed a lot with our composure, especially in the tight stretches of the game.”

Playing without 6-foot-6 center Tony Melum (broken wrist) put the Sailors at a height disadvantage. El Toro has four regulars 6-4 or taller. Newport Harbor has one.

The Sailors (6-1) compensated with a patient and poised offense.

El Toro employed a zone defense aimed at stopping 6-4 forward Dustin Illingworth, Newport Harbor’s biggest player.

The Sailors countered by working the ball around the perimeter and milking the shot clock before looking for shots.

“We played them twice over the summer,” Yarnall said. “And Dustin scored probably 80% of our points, so we knew they were going to try to stop him. We had to have the other guys step up and they did. We couldn’t have done it without a total team effort.”