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Boys’ Basketball Roundup: Edison comes oh so close

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The Sunset League boys’ basketball season is one game away from its completion, but the suspense as to which team will win the league championship is over.

That title belongs to Los Alamitos.

The Griffins (9-0 league) captured a share of the title Friday by holding off host Edison, 52-51. They secured an outright championship Tuesday by rallying from a one-point halftime deficit at Newport Harbor (5-4 league) to down the Sailors, 55-43.

In Sunset matchups Tuesday that featured local teams going head-to-head, Fountain Valley led wire-to-wire in defeating visiting Marina, 65-54, and Edison remained entrenched in second place in the league standings by winning, 59-44, at Huntington Beach.

Senior guard Richard Le hit five three-point shots and scored a game-high 20 points on Senior Night at Fountain Valley as the Barons (9-17, 2-7) concluded their home schedule with a victory. Le was one of five Barons in double figures which included a trio of other seniors, forward Jordan Venters (12 points), guards John Volkert (11 points) and Cory Bitzer (11 points), and sophomore forward Chris Meyer (11 points).

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Venters hit a key, turnaround jumper and two free throws, followed by back-to-back three-point shots by Volkert, midway in the fourth quarter, that allowed Fountain Valley to pull out to a 60-49 lead with 3:18 to play after Marina (8-16, 2-7) had closed to within 50-45 on a bank shot by Vikings junior forward Mitchell Barnes.

Sophomore wing Buzz Stafford led Marina in scoring with 17 points and junior guard Greg Fronek Jr. scored 12.

“We’ve shown steady improvement over the past few weeks and this was a nice way to close out our home schedule,” Fountain Valley Coach Roger Holmes said. “We found a way to play a little more physically and did a pretty good job rebounding against a bigger team. Volkert’s two threes from the corner were huge when [Marina] went to a zone.”

Edison, ranked seventh in CIF Southern Section Division 1A, upped its Sunset record to 7-2 and overall mark to 20-5 with its 59-44 win over Huntington. Chargers junior guard Jake Haar canned six three-point shots and led the scoring with 20 points. Junior guard Brae Ivey hit three three-pointers and finished with 15 points, and senior guard Nick Rubio added nine points.

Edison Coach Rich Boyce said his team played “very unselfish team basketball.”

“Good performance heading into the playoffs,” he said.

Senior forward Ryan Chocek scored 13 points, junior guard Malik Skillern eight points, and junior guard Tanner Roche six points for the Oilers (5-20, 2-7 league).

“I thought we played hard, but Edison shot the ball really well from three-point land,” Huntington Coach Fabian Luna said.

Brethren Christian improved to 9-2 in Academy League play Tuesday by getting past visiting Crean Lutheran, 69-66, at Liberty Christian School in Huntington Beach. Sophomore forward Cameron Griffin scored a game-high 26 points, senior guard Caleb Keller 14 points, senior forward Patrick Poss 12 points, junior forward Guy Demazeliere had eight points and 14 rebounds, and junior guard Brandon Bryson had nine points, 11 assists and three steals for the Warriors.

BC, ranked third in CIF Southern Section Division 5AA, is 21-4 overall and closes out its league campaign Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at Downey Calvary Chapel.

“It was a tough game against Crean,” BC Coach Jon Bahnsen said. “They are extremely pesky. Three times we had 10-point leads, but they kept coming back. We kept our cool as a team and survived a tough league battle.”

In a league game Saturday, senior forward Jack McInally scored 13 points and had 12 rebounds, and junior forward Josh Duren scored 13 points as BC routed visiting Oxford Academy, 73-23.

•In a key Sunset game played Friday Edison got what it had hoped for: a shot at first place in the Sunset League boys’ basketball race. The Chargers, in fact, had three shots at a share of the league lead in the final 9.3 seconds of their showdown with Los Alamitos, but when the final buzzer sounded it was the visiting Griffins who were able to somehow escape.

The first shot attempt, from three-point range, was blocked, and the final two glanced off the rim in a wild and frantic finish.

Ivey, despite fouling out with 4:50 left in the game, led Edison in scoring with 13 points.

“Obviously, he’s the engine that makes us go,” Boyce said of Ivey. “It was tough to lose him but our guys put their heart and soul out there, and we still had a chance to win at the end.”

•Huntington Beach posted a 49-43 win on Senior Night Friday against Marina. Senior guard Ryan Morrissey scored 14 points, senior forward Ryan Chocek 13 points, and senior guard Mason Luna 12 points for the Oilers.

Fronek Jr. scored 13 points, senior guard Derek Mallard 11 points, and junior guard Daniel Neff 10 points for Marina.

Sophomore guard Calvin Le hit five three-point shots and scored 17 points but Fountain Valley couldn’t come back from a big, first-half deficit (41-28) against visiting Newport Harbor and lost Friday, 72-65.

•In Golden West League action Friday, junior forward Zarek Osborne scored 15 points and senior guard Evan Bunin 13 points for Ocean View but the host Seahawks (11-14, 6-3) went cold in the second half and lost, 73-43, to league champion Westminster.

In a previous league game, Bunin scored 12 points, senior guard Angel Nieves had 18 points and 15 rebounds, and senior forward Tristan Wenschlag 10 points as Ocean View won, 55-46, at Segerstrom.

The Seahawks completed league play Wednesday against Orange. The score wasn’t available at press time.

In Sunset League finales at 7 p.m. Thursday, Edison hosts Fountain Valley, Huntington travels to Los Alamitos, and Marina is home to Newport Harbor.

The CIF Southern Section boys’ basketball pairings will be released Sunday. Division wild-card games are Wednesday and first-round games are Feb. 21.

CIF Weekly Rankings

Boys’ Basketball: Edison (No. 7, Division 1A); Brethren Christian (No. 3, Division 5AA).

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