Newport Harbor survives, barely

Patrick Laverty

The Newport Harbor High boys basketball team went from playing a

near-perfect game for three quarters to the brink of one of their

worst losses of the season Wednesday in a Sea View League game

against visiting Irvine.

The important thing for the Sailors is they won the game. But

sometimes a win doesn’t always leave a good taste and Harbor Coach

Larry Hirst definitely left the court looking for more from his team.

Newport Harbor had a 27-point lead with just over three minutes

remaining in the third quarter, but the Vaqueros, winless in league

play, cut the margin to as few as two points with under a minute to

play in the game. It wasn’t until Harbor junior guard Rafael

Mouradyan made two free throws with 10 seconds remaining that the

Sailors were able to breath a sigh of relief and escape with a 61-57

victory.

“We had a 27-point lead and we went seven possessions without

scoring,” Hirst said. “We got away from the things that we were doing

so well; Taking 20 to 25 seconds off the shot clock, guarding their

back-door cutters and getting rebounds and not allowing them

second-chance opportunities.”

Harbor (14-9, 5-3 in league) executed the game plan to perfection

for the first 22 minutes. With patience on offense, the Sailors

worked the ball inside for high-percentage shots. They made 18 of

their first 28 shots to build a 48-21 lead with 3:19 remaining in the

third quarter.

After Chad MacBeth hit a bucket with 2:01 remaining in the period,

the Sailors had a 50-25 lead, but then the Vaqueros (4-20, 0-8) began

their run.

Lacking the patience on offense that it had showed for much of the

game, Harbor missed its final five shots in the quarter and Irvine

closed the period with a 9-0 run, closing the gap to 50-34.

Not happy with the way his team ended the quarter, Hirst benched

Mouradyan, who finished with seven points, and junior Brett Perrine,

who added 11 points and seven rebounds. Neither player returned to

the court until there was 3:17 remaining in the game. By that time,

Irvine had slashed Harbor’s lead to 55-51.

“We had a couple of kids that didn’t want to follow the game plan,

both on offense and defense,” Hirst said. “They had a lot of time on

the bench to think about things. As a coaching staff, we feel that if

we’re going to be in the playoffs, we’ve got to do things better than

what we’re doing. It’s a lesson hopefully we can learn from.”

Adding to Harbor’s difficulties, leading scorer Taylor Young

fouled out of the game with 6:38 left and the Sailors leading 53-38

when he attempted to take a charge on Irvine’s Nasi Heider. Young

finished with 19 points and eight rebounds and his presence was

obviously missed. Without Young on the court -- he also sat out the

final 3:35 of the third quarter after picking up his fourth foul --

the Sailors were outscored 34-12 by the Vaqueros.

The previously hot-shooting Tars continued to go cold in the

fourth quarter, making just 3 of their final 16 shots in the game.

The biggest of those field goals was Dennis Heenan’s three-pointer

from the corner, which ended a 13-1 Irvine run and gave Newport a

59-53 lead with 1:24 remaining.

“He was in the right spot,” Hirst said. “When we penetrate, I

think it was Perrine who penetrated, our shooters our supposed to be

in certain spots on the floor. He was in his spot.”

But consecutive buckets by Irvine, which scored 32 points over the

game’s final nine minutes, 32 seconds, cut the deficit to 59-57 with

53 seconds remaining.

Mouradyan’s game-sealing free throws came after Greg Gausewitz

came up with a steal with 14 seconds remaining.

With the victory and Aliso Niguel’s loss to Foothill Wednesday,

the Tars are tied for second place with Aliso Niguel, one game ahead

of Foothill. There are two games left in the regular season.

While the win leaves Harbor in good playoff position, Hirst wasn’t

ready to celebrate.

“To be honest, you really want to go into the playoffs on a

winning note,” Hirst said. “I guess this is a winning note. But it

wasn’t a whole lot of momentum.”

*--*

Sea View League

Newport Harbor 61, Irvine 57

Score by Quarters

Irvine 10 7 17 23 -- 57

Harbor 14 16 20 11 -- 61

Irvine -- Verrill 3, Hess 4, Gavino 2,

Brockman 0, Yu 0, Carr 9, Samson 2, Heider

12, Robins 2, Skidmore 11, Crawley 9. 3-pt.

goals -- Verrill 1, Heider 1. Fouled out -- Carr Technicals -- None. Newport Harbor --

Mouradyan 7, Perrine 11, Heenan 13, Young 19,

MacBeth 6, Allee 0, Slater 3, Gausewitz 2.

3-pt. goals -- Heenan 3, Perrine 1. Fouled

out -- Young, MacBeth. Technicals -- None.

*--*