Villa Park’s Big Plans Are Coming Together

There was talk at Villa Park before the season that with a little hard work the Spartans could have a good boys’ basketball team.

Forget the Century League title, the Spartans were looking way beyond that.

Well, Saturday night in its 56-45 victory over San Clemente in the championship game of the Anaheim Holiday Tournament at the Anaheim Convention Center, Villa Park had a chance to display the suffocating defense that it hopes will take it deep into the playoffs.

The Spartans held San Clemente to just one field goal in the first quarter and raced to a 16-3 lead. The Tritons made only four in the second quarter and never recovered.

Junior guard Matt MacGinnis was the offensive catalyst, scoring a game-high 19 points for Villa Park.

But it was his no-look pass to Tommy Stankan, who scored with 2:06 to go in the second quarter, that helped Villa Park stave off a small comeback attempt by the Tritons (8-2). Another of MacGinnis’ assists, with two minutes left in the third quarter, led to a 36-22 Spartan advantage.

Junior guard Tony Bryant, a transfer from Marina, scored nine points and was named most valuable player in the tournament.

“I think we can compete for a CIF championship,” Bryant said. “If we play to championship form, we can win.”

The Spartans got careless just once, when San Clemente rallied to trail, 49-43, on a layup by Curtis Bush off an assist from Brian George with 1:50 to go.

But Villa Park scored the next seven points.

“I don’t know how good we can be,” Villa Park Coach Kevin Reynolds said. “I changed my lineup two nights ago and that was a lineup that was 6-1. Nobody said anything about it. So, I think we’re pretty good now and we’ll get a lot better.”

Bush led the Tritons with 18 points.

In other tournament games:

Esperanza 54, No. 10 Newport Harbor 51--Guard Anthony Vicencia of Esperanza blocked a potential game-tying layup by Newport Harbor’s Aaron Yarnal with seven seconds remaining. Two seconds later, Vicencia sank the front of end of a one and one for a three-point lead. Sailor forward Sean Rorden grabbed the missed second attempt and passed to Yarnal, who dribbled from midcourt to the left of the key and sank what would have been a game-tying shot--except that the basket was waved off by referees who ruled it came after the buzzer.

Mission Viejo 42, Katella 36--Junior forward Matt Cole scored 16 points for Mission Viejo (5-6). Forward Phillip Tyson led Katella with 15 points.

San Bernardino Pacific 83, Brea Olinda 54--Donnell Jury scored 28 points to lead Pacific (6-1).

Foothill 65, Capistrano Valley 63--Chad Bigler and Zack Smith of Foothill (5-4) each had three three-pointers in the consolation game. Capistrano Valley (6-4) rallied in the fourth quarter, but a steal by Foothill preserved the victory.

No. 7 El Toro 70, Moreno Valley Rancho Verde 62--Ashkan Nazeri scored 19 points and Chris Parish added 13 for El Toro (5-5).