Woodbridge Wins Tournament Title

The Woodbridge High boys’ basketball team clicked on offense during the first half of the Irvine World News tournament championship game Saturday night.

Santa Fe Springs St. Paul only clanked.

The Warriors made 17 of 26 shots in the first half, while St. Paul missed 21 of 24. That added up to a 30-point halftime lead for Woodbridge, which cruised to a 67-49 victory at Concordia University.

“Our kids probably did the best job all year of running the offense,” Woodbridge Coach John Halagan said. “I was pleased because the ball was finding the open man.”

The Swordsmen played without leading scorer Fausto Gonzales, who injured his ankle in a semifinal victory over Irvine Friday. St. Paul made just one of 13 shots in the second quarter and trailed, 39-9, at the half.

“I prefer to think [the nine first-half points] is from our kids playing very hard defensively,”

Halagan said. “We’ve done that to a few teams, such as the Villa Parks and the Santa Margaritas.”

Woodbridge (10-2), ranked seventh in Orange County, made its first five shots of the game and 10 of 12 in the opening quarter to take a 23-7 lead. Danny Lambert and Tashaan Forehan-Kelly both made all three of their first-quarter shots for the Warriors.

“We were a little more content to let the offensive continuity work,” Halagan said. “Let some screen exchanges create space for us instead of putting the ball on the floor and creating space off the dribble, which we’ve been guilty of.”

Forehan-Kelly was also perfect on both of his shots in the second quarter, including a follow off Mike Moeller’s miss that gave Woodbridge a 35-9 lead with just under two minutes left in the first half.

Forehan-Kelly scored 15 points for the Warriors, who had 14 players score. Halagan pulled his starters early in the third quarter and kept the reserves on the floor even though St. Paul managed to cut the lead to 19 early in the fourth quarter.

Lambert scored 13 points and Mater Dei transfer Patrick Haddan had 10 for Woodbridge, which won the tournament for the fourth time in the last six years.