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Tustin players, including No. 1 Brannon Hampton, No. 5 Marcus Harris and No. 2 Yuri Klines, get ready to congratulate Calvary Chapel players. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Tustin High School’s boys basketball team took another step toward capturing the Empire League title, defeating Calvary Chapel 57-31 Wednesday night at Tustin.
The Tillers (5-0, 19-6) need three more league wins to earn the crown. Tustin’s last league title came in 2017.
Wednesday night, the emphasis was on defense, specifically containing Calvary Chapel’s standout senior Jorden Embry, who had a big game in the first round against the Tillers. Tustin, led by Yuri Klines, held Embry to nine points and also led the Tillers in scoring with 14 points.
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Moe Hernandez added 12 points for Tustin.
“We were really, really active,” said Tustin Coach Ringo Bossenmeyer. “Number zero (Embry) had 30 points on us last time at their place, so we made a concerted effort to try and make sure that whenever he had the ball on the perimeter, we had all eyes locked on him to make sure we got any gaps and try and help and rotate. It was a complete team effort defensively.”
“It was a great win,” Klines added. “Calvary Chapel probably gave us the biggest challenge, so our mindset was to go at them, go strong at them, number zero (scored) 30 last game, so our focus was we can’t let that happen for no team or nobody, and we held him to under that and everybody was playing together, we were all one.”
Tustin jumped out to a 13-5 lead after one quarter, closing the quarter on a 3-pointer by Klines. The Tillers led 28-17 at halftime and then went on a 9-0 run to start the third quarter to break the game open.
Ben Devries was the second leading scorer for Calvary Chapel (10-14, 2-3) with seven points. The Eagles, under first year coach BJ Porter, appear to still be in the race for the CIF playoffs with a couple weeks left.
Tustin has games remaining with Fullerton at home next Wednesday, Jan. 29, at Godinez on Friday, Jan. 31 and at second place Costa Mesa on Tuesday, Feb. 4.
“We’re looking at it as eight mile,” Bossenmeyer said. “We’ve run five miles and we have three of the hardest miles left. We don’t play against until Wednesday, so we will get healed up and get ready for Fullerton. Fullerton gave us all we could handle. It was a five-point game. One of their guys had 20 on us.”
“It’s not over with, we have our goal and we’re trying to achieve it,” Klines added.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com