Oilers go the distance

The Huntington Beach girls’ basketball team continues to shoot its way through the school record books.

When the Oilers defeated Newport Harbor, 61-25, they connected on eight three-point shots en route to an easy win over the visiting Sailors. The eight treys pushed the teams’ season total to 132, a school record. The old mark of 93 was set by the 1993-94 team that won the Sunset League championship.

Huntington Coach Russ McClurg served as an assistant on that ‘93-94 team.

Maya Kennedy hit three three-pointers and led the Oilers with a game-high 15 points. Kelsey Minato is the team-leader from behind the arc with 39.

“It is a tremendous accomplishment that I am very proud of the girls for,” McClurg said. “The girls work very hard on taking quality shots versus quantity.”

In addition to continuing to build on a school record for threes, McClurg is honing in on a coaching milestone: his 250th career win. If his Oilers pick up two more victories this year, he’ll reach that mark.

McClurg is 145-56 at Huntington (eighth year) and prior to that, he was 103-58 in six seasons as head coach at Calvary Chapel (Santa Ana), where he guided the program to a CIF championship, Southern California championship and was runner-up to the CIF State Division 4 title during the 1998-99 season.

“I am very proud of the success we have had this year and also very thankful for all the kids that I have had the opportunity to coach over the years,” he said. “ If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be the coach that I am today. I am certainly thankful for all of the great memories and look forward to many more to come. It has been an amazing year so far.”

Huntington begins round two of Sunset play at 7 p.m. today at Los Alamitos.

In other girls’ basketball action:

Brethren Christian: The Warriors ended the first-half of Academy League play Friday with a 37-35 overtime win over Sage Hill. BC used a 10-4 fourth-quarter surge to earn overtime. Rebekah Rudd led the Warriors with 13 points, including five in overtime. Sara Hodges and Diannia Demaziliere each scored six points and Emily Hammond added five points and 12 rebounds.

BC plays league foe Crean Lutheran South during the school’s King Warrior Night festivities. The game will be played at Ocean View High to accommodate an anticipated large crowd. The Warriors also play Saturday against Pacifica (Garden Grove). The nonleague game tentatively is set for 3 p.m.

Edison: The Chargers completed a 5-0 run in the first-half of Sunset League play Jan. 20 by winning, 81-40, at Marina. Bonnie Samuelson’s 31 points powered Edison, which turned a 19-5 first-quarter lead into a 45-15 halftime advantage. Geena Gomez and Karlie Samuelson each contributed 11 points.

In a nonleague game Saturday, Edison got 30 points from Bonnie Samuelson and 25 more from Karlie Samuelson, but La Jolla Country Day rallied in the fourth quarter to pull out a 69-66 victory.

The Chargers returned to Sunset play Monday and opened up the second-half of their league slate with a 69-30 win over Fountain Valley.

Fountain Valley: The Barons fell to 1-4 in Sunset play after falling, 43-30, to visiting Los Alamitos. Kimi Kamada and Jasmine Matar both scored six points for Fountain Valley. The Barons also fell, 69-30, against Edison Monday.

Marina: The Vikings saw their Sunset record slip to 3-2 following an 81-40 home loss Jan. 20 to Edison. Alyssa Kinoshita had 11 points for Marina.

“Edison has great talent in their starting five, great shooters, a great press and has the ability to dominate their opponents,” Marina Coach Butch Fredlow said. “It was a game that will hopefully make us tougher and hopefully better against the competition in the Sunset League.”

The Vikings, who are in final exams this week, begin the second round of league play at 7 tonight hosting Newport Harbor.

Ocean View: The Seahawks picked up one of their more important victories of the season Jan. 20, visiting Segerstrom, 45-42, to remain undefeated in league play while handing the Jaguars their first league loss. Hannah Ferguson’s game-high 23 points paced the win, with Kelli Berry adding 10 points.

On Tuesday, however, Ocean View saw a nine-point halftime lead evaporate as host Santa Ana rallied in the second half to pull out a 35-34 win. The setback dropped the Seahawks to 4-1 in league and 11-9 overall, while the Saints improved to 3-2 in league.

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Boys’ Basketball

Brethren Christian: The Warriors survived Sage Hill’s box-and-one defense on Daniel Healy and leading-scorer Riley Thomas’ foul troubles to rally late for a 36-34 Academy League win. Thomas got into early foul trouble and played just five minutes in the first half. The Lightning was up by seven early in the fourth quarter before BC made its move with an 11-0 run to take control. Thomas and Dakota Warren both scored nine points and Healy’s solid, all-around performance resulted in four points, seven assists, six rebounds and four steals.

The Warriors, who lead the league at 5-0 and are 20-1 overall and ranked fifth in CIF Division 5A, host Crean Lutheran South at 8 p.m. Friday at the Ocean View High gym. BC defeated Crean Lutheran, 62-43, in the first half of league play.

Edison: The Chargers ended the first-half of league play tied for first place after handling visiting Marina, 59-28. Dreon Barlett’s 16 points and 15 more by Dylan Garrity paced the Edison offense.

In previous action, Edison scored a key 57-48 win over visiting Los Alamitos. Garrity had 21 points and Barlett 19 points, as the Chargers knocked the Griffins out of a share for first place.

“We played real well defensively and were led by Dylan and Dreon offensively,” Edison Coach Rich Boyce said.

Edison begins the second round of league play Friday (7 p.m.) at Fountain Valley. The Chargers pulled away in the second half of their Jan. 7 game against the Barons to score a 75-52 victory.

“Fountain Valley is playing real well and we expect a tough matchup with the Barons on Friday,” Boyce said.

Fountain Valley: The Barons, hampered by illness, fell from a share of first place in the Sunset standings after losing, 59-40, at Los Alamitos. Zach Matar had a game-high 14 points for Fountain Valley (14-7 overall, 3-2 league), which trailed by only four at the half and had a four-game win streak snapped.

“The game was a tale of two halves,” Barons Coach Roger Holmes said. “ We played pretty tough in the first half. We have been fighting a team-wide flu bug and maybe it caught up to us. We could not put the ball in the basket in the second half and the game got away from us.”

Fountain Valley had run its win streak to four games Jan. 19 by defeating visiting Newport Harbor, 74-58. Judd Chamaa had a game-best 22 points and three other Barons — Matar (10), Sean Myers (14) and Nathan Moss (11) — scored in double figures. The Barons bolted to a 15-point lead after one quarter.

Fountain Valley hosts rival Edison at 7 p.m. Friday.

“They continue to play well,” Holmes said of the Chargers.”They are sound in all phases of the game and we will have to play a great game to keep it close. They really shot well the last time we played. The game was similar to our Los Al game. It was a four-point game at half and we didn’t score in the second half.”

Huntington Beach: The Oilers outscored host Newport Harbor on Friday by nine points in the second half to roar back for out a 62-57 Sunset victory, which allowed them to keep pace with Edison atop the league standings. Jordan Reise had three three-point shots and netted 25 points and Dirk Cason and Vincent Oe (three threes) had 11 and 10 points, respectively, for Huntington, which improved to 4-1 in league and 16-6 overall. The Sailors dropped to 0-5 in league and 8-17 overall.

Huntington fell behind, 11-0, at the outset of the game

“It is a tough place to play and we came out a little flat,” Huntington Coach Fabian Luna said. “But I was glad we were able to show some poise and get back into the game and finish strong.”

Huntington earned its third league victory Jan. 19 by winning 53-34 at Marina. Rory Aldana led the Oilers on offense with 11 points.

The Oilers will be out to complete a league sweep of defending champion Los Alamitos when they host the Griffins at 7 p.m. Friday. Huntington edged Los Al, 41-39, on Jan. 7.

Marina: The Vikings stepped out of Sunset League action Monday to take on Aliso Niguel and the host Wolverines, the top-ranked team in CIF Division 1A, scored a 75-53 victory. JJ James had 20 points and Josh Long 16 points for Marina.

On Friday, Marina played a league game at Edison and lost to the Chargers, 59-28. James led the Vikings with 10 points. James also had 11 points in a 53-34 home loss Jan. 19 to Huntington Beach.

Marina (1-4 league) travels Friday (7 p.m.) to face Newport Harbor. The Vikings beat the Sailors in their Jan. 7 meeting, 46-43.

Ocean View: The Seahawks scored a season-high in points Friday and had little trouble with visiting Santa Ana in posting an 88-41 Golden West League victory.

The win capped a three-game week for Ocean View, which started with a loss to Huntington Beach on Jan. 17 and then a Jan. 19 win over Segerstrom.

The Seahawks scored a key league encounter over Segerstrom, winning, 58-55. Guard Billy Keller topped the Seahawks with 21 points and Cristian Rivera and Conor Clifford scored 13 and 10 points, respectively.

Keller scored 14, Rivera 10 and guard Robby Weaver hit three three-point shots and finished with 13 points against Santa Ana.

The Seahawks travel to Loara on Friday for a 7 p.m. league game.