Ocean View struggles in victory

Mike Sciacca, Independent

Ocean View High boys basketball coach Jim Harris took his Seahawks

Monday on an outing that involved bowling and ice cream, sort of a reward

for what, thus far, had been an outstanding season.

The treat almost backfired on Harris, who could only smile and shake his

head after watching Ocean View somehow manage a 50-33 victory over

visiting Santa Ana Wednesday in an extremely sloppy Golden West League

contest.

There were plenty of turnovers and missed shots by both teams, but that

did little to convince Harris that this was a hard fought victory.

“Really, I am stunned,” he said afterward. “We had been practicing so

well and had been playing well, too, improving with just about each game.

This has to be about the worst performance I’ve seen from an Ocean View

team in a long, long time. I’m just thankful that we could play so poorly

and still win.”

With regular starters Jeremiah Bell and Neal Smith, both of whom have

struggled recently with ankle injuries, out of the opening lineup, the

Seahawks, who have won eight straight to improve to 22-2 overall and 6-0

in league, couldn’t find any continuity from the opening tap until the

final horn.

Ocean View missed its first nine shots and had five turnovers in the

game’s first 4:30, and Santa Ana, itself shooting poorly, staked its way

to an 8-0 lead. The Seahawks’ first basket of the game came with 1:02

left in the opening quarter on a Torin Beeler lay in, and that would be

all the scoring for Ocean View over the next 5:46, until guard Ryan

Westbrook hit a three-point basket to bring the Seahawks within 10-8.

Junior Marques Crane, a 6-foot-4 forward who came into the game averaging

22.8 points, missed his first six shot attempts of the night, but did

close the first half with a flourish, scoring Ocean View’s final nine

points en route to a 19-16 lead at the break.

It was Crane’s first basket of the game, a short jumper, which gave Ocean

View its first lead, 12-11, with 2:26 to go in the half.

He went on to top all scorers with 16 points.

“How we managed to get up 19-16 at the half is beyond me,” a puzzled

Harris said. “I thought the only steady play we had all night came in the

third quarter.”

It did.

Steve Clarke scored on a jumper, Beeler and Ryan Westbrook hit

back-to-back three-point shots, and Beeler also scored on a lay in to cap

a 12-0 Ocean View run that began in the final seconds of the first half,

putting the Seahawks in command, 29-16.

Ocean View came out at the start of the second half aggressive, forcing

Santa Ana into several turnovers. The Saints (9-13, 3-2) missed their

first six shots and didn’t score a basket in the period until Darnell

Graham scored from underneath with 1:12 to go.

That made it a 32-20 game, but a Casey Ortiz baseline jumper, a Westbrook

free throw, and Beeler’s buzzer-beating three-pointer gave the Seahawks a

38-20 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Both teams’ continued their woeful performances in the final period, each

netting just one basket in the first seven minutes. Still, the Saints

could get no closer than 14 points.

“If we play this way in the playoffs, we won’t get past the first round,”

Harris warned. “We have to be sharp the rest of the way out.”

They’d better be, because things don’t get any easier for the Seahawks,

who play two games within a 15-hour period this weekend. Friday night,

they visit league rival Westminster in a 7 p.m. tipoff, and on Saturday,

Ocean View battles former league nemesis Servite in a 10 a.m. start at The Pyramid on the campus of Long Beach State.