Pacifica Christian Orange County, CdM fall in CdM Beach Bash semifinals

The Pacifica Christian Orange County High boys’ basketball team couldn’t quite rally from a large deficit, while Corona del Mar couldn’t quite keep an upset bid alive in the second half against the top-ranked team in Orange County.

Both teams from Newport Beach lost in the semifinals of the CdM Beach Bash tournament Friday night at Corona del Mar High. Pacifica Christian Orange County fell 51-48 to Trabuco Hills, while CdM lost 83-62 to Mater Dei.

The Tritons, in their third year as a varsity program, will play the Sea Kings for the first time in the tournament’s third-place game Saturday night at 7. The teams did scrimmage this season, Pacifica Christian coach Jeff Berokoff said.

Mater Dei plays Trabuco Hills earlier Saturday, at 4 p.m., for the title of the 14-team tournament. The game got moved up, as the Monarchs football team plays Concord De La Salle in the CIF State Open Division title game Saturday at 8 p.m. at Cerritos College in Norwalk.

“A lot of our parents want to go to the football game [Saturday] night,” Mater Dei basketball coach Gary McKnight said, adding that he also plans to attend.

Pacifica Christian (7-3) missed out on a chance to challenge the Monarchs for the Beach Bash title. The Tritons came out cold in the first half against Trabuco Hills (4-1). They fell behind by 15 points early in the third quarter, when Mustangs senior guard Kelvin Cabrera made his fifth three-pointer of the game.

Cabrera finished with six makes from downtown and a game-high 20 points. Pacifica Christian senior forward Solomon Davis led the Tritons with 18 points, but Trabuco Hills coach Sean Sullins saw his team play tough inside, save a first-half alley-oop dunk by the Tritons’ Judah Brown assisted by Timmy Bahadoor.

“In the first half, [Davis] had 10, but we were OK with that because they were all jump shots,” Sullins said. “They had the one alley-oop for the dunk, and other than that, they didn’t beat us down low … We focused on no transition baskets from them and no offensive boards, and we did a really good job in those areas. I can’t say how proud I am of our guys.”

Pacifica Christian got within three points, at 51-48, on a three-pointer by sophomore guard Houston Mallette with 1:40 to play in the fourth quarter. But neither team would score again.

In the final minute, the Tritons missed a layup that spun off the rim, and then the front end of a one-and-one at the line with six seconds left. After the ball went out of bounds under the Pacifica Christian basket, Berokoff called timeout with one second remaining.

The pass went to Mallette, who hit the game-winning shot in Wednesday’s pool-play win over Eaglecrest of Centennial, Colo. This time, his heave from just beyond half-court glanced off the back rim.

“They hunker down in their 2-3 zone, slow the game down and pack it in,” Berokoff said of the Mustangs. “We just didn’t make enough plays to come back from the deficit … the ball just wasn’t going in for us, and for three quarters, it was really going in for them. That makes it tough.”

CdM (4-2) led for most of the first half against Mater Dei (6-1), and took a 39-34 halftime advantage. But the Monarchs scored the first 11 points of the third quarter, part of a 30-point eruption in the quarter.

Junior guard Ryan Evans got hot, making four of his five three-pointers in the quarter. Sophomore guard Devin Askew scored 18 of his game-high 21 points in the second half for the Monarchs.

Junior forward John Humphreys led a well-balanced Sea Kings attack with 13 points and eight rebounds. Senior guard Jake Hamilton had 11 points, and junior guard Jack Stone scored 10.

“In the second half, they made some tough threes,” CdM coach Ryan Schachter said. “We didn’t shoot it particularly well in the second half, and their defense had a lot to do with that. We’ve got to get a little bit better with the pressure releases, when teams really pick up pressure in the half-court. But I loved the energy our guys played with. Even in the second half, when they were making their run, I thought our guys played with a lot of energy.”

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CdM Beach Bash

Semifinal

Trabuco Hills 51, Pacifica Christian Orange County 48

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Trabuco Hills 18 – 19 – 11 – 3 — 51

Pacifica Christian 11 – 13 – 12 – 12 — 48

TH – Cabrera 20, Hotmer 10, Talle 9, Zingales 8, Warnick 3, Wright 1.

3-pt. goals – Cabrera 6, Talle 3, Zingales 2, Warnick 1.

Fouled out – None.

Technicals – None.

PC – Davis 18, Brown 10, Mallette 10, Bahadoor 4, Sims 3, Franklin 3.

3-pt. goals – Mallette 2, Brown 1, Sims 1, Franklin 1.

Fouled out – None.

Technicals – None.

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CdM Beach Bash

Semifinal

Mater Dei 82, Corona del Mar 63

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Mater Dei 13 – 21 – 30 – 18 — 82

Corona del Mar 15 – 24 – 10 – 14 — 63

MD – Askew 21, Evans 17, Prukop 14, Hornery 9, Breidenbach 8, Cremonesi 5, Peralta 2, Quiette 2, Lara 2, Donohue 1, Persek 1.

3-pt. goals – Evans 5, Prukop 4, Askew 3, Cremonesi 1, Hornery 1.

Fouled out – Breidenbach.

Technicals – None.

CdM –Humphreys 13, Hamilton 11, Stone 10, A. Garza 9, Schimmelpfennig 8, J. Garza 7, Overfelt 3, Olson 1, Garbers 1.

3-pt. goals – Humphreys 2, Hamilton 2, J. Garza 1, Stone 1, A. Garza 1, Overfelt 1.

Fouled out – None.

Technicals – None.

matthew.szabo@latimes.com

Twitter: @mjszabo