Pinick Is Living Up to Lofty Standards

Travis Pinick leads the Orange Lutheran boys’ basketball team in scoring and rebounding, is the son of the school principal and plans to continue playing at Yale this fall.

No pressure.

He looked cool Wednesday night against Placentia Valencia in an Empire League game, totaling 28 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Lancers, ranked No. 23 in the Southland by The Times, to an 80-71 victory at Valencia.

“Sometimes I wish I was a normal kid but most of the time I just brush it off,” said Pinick, a 6-foot-7 guard, who made 10 of 16 shots, including four of seven from beyond the three-point stripe in nearly doubling his season scoring average.

Pinick made six of eight shots in the first half and scored 17 points to help the Lancers, ranked third in Southern Section Division III-A, to a 42-27 lead. Teammate Jeff Ledbetter then got hot in the third quarter, scoring 10 of his 18 points to help the Lancers maintain a double-digit lead.

“My teammates did a good job of finding me early in the offense,” said Pinick, who made a last-second shot to beat No. 14 Santa Margarita last month. “I think it was just a team effort, guys were picking times to score.”

The Lancers, 16-4 overall and 5-0 in the Empire League, made 11 of 18 three-point attempts and 21 of 22 free throws for the game. Valencia, ranked seventh in Southern Section Division II-AA, made two of 10 three-point shots and 21 of 35 free throws.

Dan Arritt

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Honors

Four Southland high school coaches are among the most recent recipients of the CIF Model Coach Award, presented to positive role models in their schools and communities.

They are: Al Bennett, who has coached boys’ basketball, volleyball and golf in the City Section for 35 years, most recently at Lake Balboa Birmingham; Coley Candaele, who started the football program at Murrieta Vista Murrieta in 2003 after leading Carpinteria to several league titles and a Southern Section title; Carolyn Gunny, girls’ basketball and softball coach at Granada Hills, who has been a high school coach for 33 years, and Toki Ochi, athletic director at La Puente Bassett, who has also coached softball and girls’ tennis in his nearly 35 years at the school.