Seahawks headed to Sacramento

LOS ANGELES --- All year long, the Ocean View High boys’ basketball team has been known as an outside shooting team.

Almost anybody on the squad is capable of burying a three-pointer, but few thought the Seahawks could shoot themselves this far.

After a 79-63 victory over Harvard-Westlake Saturday in the CIF State Division III Southern California regional championship game at UCLA, Ocean View now shoots for a state title.

Senior guard Mason Jones had 22 points and junior guard Anthony Brown added 19, helping Ocean View (27-7) continue to take its program to heights never-before seen in Coach Jim Harris’ 31 years at the helm.

“I’m on a great ride with these young men, and we’re enjoying the heck out of it,” said Harris, whose team will play Sacred Heart Cathedral for the Division III state title Saturday at 2:45 p.m. at Sacramento’s Arco Arena. “I think that’s kind of why we’re confident. We’re not looking at it as pressure. We’re just looking at it as pure enjoyment. That’s how we should look at it. These are young guys, and they make me feel young.”

And, as they have been doing a lot during their magical playoff run, the Seahawks made a statement early. They poured in 28 points in the first quarter, including five of six makes from beyond the arc, to jump out to a 28-17 lead.

Junior guard Aaron Delgado also hit a pair of three-pointers in the first quarter. For the game, the Seahawks made 10 of 18 three-pointers; Harvard-Westlake (27-7) was just one of 14 from three-point land.

“ We’re a good-shooting team,” Jones said. “Good-shooting teams continue to shoot the ball well. That’s been our mindset all year: shoot the ball.”

Top-seeded Harvard-Westlake came out trying to trap the Seahawks with a 2-2-1 zone press, but second-seeded Ocean View figured it out quickly enough. It was the Wolverines who turned the ball over more early, six times in the first quarter.

The lead was single-digits for much of the second quarter, but Brown’s three-pointer with three seconds left pushed it to a 41-30 edge at halftime.

Brown was also five of seven from the free-throw line as he attacked the rim as the game wore on.

“At first, they started off in a zone press, so we figured that we wanted to move the ball around,” he said. “Then they switched to the man press, and I saw that I had a bigger, slower guy on me. I just wanted to take it to the basket and attack the rim.”

Ocean View opened the third quarter on a 10-2 run, giving the Seahawks a 19-point lead and forcing a Harvard-Westlake timeout. Included in the run were a triple from Jones and a rare three-pointer from junior center Ryan Okwudibonye, who had 15 points of his own.

Harvard-Westlake cut it to 11 late in the quarter, but another big three-pointer from Jones and a lay-up by junior center Chris Martinez made it a more comfortable 65-49 advantage headed into the fourth quarter.

“It’s very frustrating,” Harvard-Westlake Coach Greg Hillard said. “We tried to take away the three and we found out they could drive. At that point, it was, ‘What else can you do?’ ”

Avery Johnson scored six and Billy Keller had five for Ocean View. Johnson tweaked his ankle in the second half, but said after the game that it shouldn’t be an issue for the Division III state title game on Saturday.

Harvard-Westlake was led by junior guard Austin Kelly, who had 16 points. Sophomore forward Damiene Cain had 13 points and 13 rebounds for the Wolverines, who out-rebounded Ocean View, 38-26.

The Seahawks, the CIF Southern Section Division IV-AA champions who have won 19 of their last 20 games, now move on for one final goal: a state title.

“If you guys watch college basketball, a lot of underdog teams are winning,” Jones said. “For the most part, during CIF and State, people had us as underdogs and not winning.

“Look at us now.”