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Edison’s boys basketball team after winning the Tustin Classic Monday night. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Edison High School’s boys basketball team got a challenge from Sunset League rival Newport Harbor Monday night, but the Chargers finished strong to capture the Tustin Classic with a 64-53 victory in the championship game of the eight-team tournament.
Edison led by seven points at halftime and finished strong outscoring Edison 16-11 in the final quarter to claim its first tourney title of the season. Newport Harbor was trying to bring home its second tourney crown.
“We played a couple of good teams and we had a few of the games where we didn’t play all that well, we just found a way to tough it out and win in the end, like tonight,” said Edison Coach Josh Beaty. “They’re (Newport Harbor) tough, they don’t quit, they just keep coming back.”
To see the slide show, click on the first photo:
The two teams will meet in Sunset League play on Monday, Jan. 8 at Edison.
“I’m not looking forward to playing them two more times,” Beaty said.
Edison (12-6) was led by Jayden Oei, who scored a game-high 27 points. Oei and Connor Mcnally were named to the all-tournament team and senior Derick Johnson, who scored 19 points in three quarters before coming out with an ankle injury, was selected MVP.
“They (Oei and Johnson) can make really difficult shots, when you combine the fact that we can get the ball inside, we have some bigger stronger guys now and they can make difficult shots,” Beaty said.
Johnson said he expects to be OK and ready to play.
“It was just a team effort, I knew my guys were going to step up,” he said of the game. “We have role players who do their job, we just have to focus on our rebounds. We have some momentum going into these league games so we’re just going to go in there with confidence, thinking we can beat every team.”
Newport Harbor (13-5) was led by Owen Saukkola, who had 14 points and Jack Berry, who scored 13 points. Both players earned all-tournament honors.
Sailors Coach Robert Torribio praised the effort of Edison.
“The Chargers are good, the Chargers are very well coached, they’re a very talented team and I thought we came out a little bit too slow with the start,” he said. “And when you spot a good team like that too many points, you’re going to have a hard time battling back. They do such a good job defensively, they run their stuff so well offensively, you can’t come out slow against a team that’s as talented as that.”
Torribio was pleased with the effort of his all-tournament players.
“They’ve been playing great for us all year and all our guys are playing great for us, for whatever reason today, being a holiday or whatever it might be, give credit to the Chargers, they definitely bothered us,” he said.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
