Woodbridge’s Balance Topples Irvine for Title

IRVINE â€”  Woodbridge showed it hasn’t lost any talent this season, it has just spread out more.

The Warriors had 10 players score points in the first half and 11 in the game as they won the Irvine World News boys’ basketball tournament for the third consecutive year with a 76-70 victory over Irvine Saturday at Concordia.

“This is a unique group to coach,� Woodbridge Coach John Halagan said. “We’re getting contributions from a lot of different guys.�

That hasn’t been the case for Woodbridge the last few seasons, when it had Chris Burgess, now playing at Duke, accounting for a majority of the Warriors’ offense.

“It’s kind of funny, all the people say the Burgess era is over, well Josh Burgess played very well in this tournament,� Halagan said. “I’m just real happy. We have a lot of guys playing well right now.�

The Warriors (6-4) also received solid performances from starters Jordan Roker, Scott Barlow and Charles Clark.

Roker, a senior forward, scored 15 of his 19 points in the second half, Barlow contributed 16 points and Clark had 14, including six in the fourth quarter when Woodbridge outscored Irvine, 24-21.

Irvine (7-3), not among the eight seeded teams in the tournament, was led by junior guard Chris Ferguson, who scored 28 points but was limited to one field goal in the fourth quarter.

“We wanted to prove to everyone in the tournament, and ourselves, what we can do,� Ferguson said. Ferguson scored nine of his team’s 13 points in the opening quarter as the Vaqueros fell behind by seven. Steve Miller’s three-pointer at the halftime buzzer kept Irvine within seven.

Ferguson scored nine more in the third quarter to cut the lead to three, but a basket inside by Clark, followed by a three-point play by Roker with 6:23 remaining put Woodbridge ahead, 59-51.

Irvine got as close as four with about two minutes remaining, but Miller missed two free throws and Barlow hit a baseline jumper to put Woodbridge up by eight.