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  • Yorba Linda basketball player Isaac Douglass averaged 16 points and...

    Yorba Linda basketball player Isaac Douglass averaged 16 points and seven rebounds as a sophomore last season.

  • Yorba Linda basketball player Isaac Douglass scored a career-high 29...

    Yorba Linda basketball player Isaac Douglass scored a career-high 29 points against Huntington Beach on Dec. 5.

  • Yorba Linda basketball player Isaac Douglass previously played for the...

    Yorba Linda basketball player Isaac Douglass previously played for the school's youth feeder program, the Yorba Linda Stampede.

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Date shot: 12/31/2012 . Photo by KATE LUCAS /  ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

YORBA LINDA – Yorba Linda’s boys basketball team needed a basket.

In less than three minutes of game time, its 14-point lead had evaporated into the gymnasium rafters. Capistrano Valley had used a 13-0 run late in the fourth quarter to pull within a point.

Yorba Linda looked overwhelmed by half-court pressure during this precarious stretch, at one time turning the ball over on five consecutive possessions.

Yorba Linda coach Jason Pietsch calls a timeout with less than a minute remaining, his team clinging to a 55-54 lead. Pietsch turns to junior Isaac Douglass.

“You’ve got to get your top players shots,” Yorba Linda’s fourth-year coach said. “Isaac’s our guy. We run a lot of stuff to him and through him, and it’s definitely what we wanted, and the shot we wanted. What’s amazing is that he seems comfortable taking those shots.

“He’s very comfortable in his skin, on the court, in the spotlight, wherever it may be.”

Douglass is a gamer, the kid who can’t stand losing to friends in cards or civil games of Apples to Apples. His first, second and third instinct is to win. And it’s been that way since preschool, when he began playing organized basketball locally.

“I’ve always had a good IQ for basketball,” he said. “I got the game really fast.”

A junior, he’s become Yorba Linda’s go-to player, the fulcrum of Pietsch’s free-flowing, spread-the-floor offense. Douglass didn’t expect to shoulder so much responsibility this winter, but he enjoys it nonetheless.

Against Capistrano Valley, with his team needing something, Douglass finds enough space in the right corner to launch a 3-point shot. The ball doesn’t even graze rim on its way though the hoop.

Yorba Linda wins, 59-57, as Douglass finishes with 28 points, a career high he’ll re-set the following night. Yorba Linda later defeats Huntington Beach High and Cypress High to capture the consolation championship of the Godinez Grizzly Invitational.

“I feel like I’m still learning a lot,” said Douglass, who received all-tournament laurels after averaging 22 points in five games. “I feel like I’ve taken over that leadership role this past week. As a junior, I just lead by example.”

Douglass has no clue where he got his height.

He stands 6-foot-4 in socks and 6-5 in basketball shoes. He’s hard to miss.

His father, Trent Douglass, is 5-11, a longtime sports fanatic and pastor at Calvary Chapel Saving Grace. His mother checks in at 5-6, a home schooling teacher who taught her eldest of four children everything he knows.

Isaac Douglass began home schooling in fifth grade, long into his basketball apprenticeship. Douglass initially struggled in elementary school, his mother believing intimate teaching would right his grades and keep him committed. Her son was too talented an athlete to be held back by a lack of effort in the classroom, she thought.

By that time, Douglass was spending morning, afternoon and night shooting hoops in the driveway with his father. Douglass and a teammate of his were always taller and wider than kids their age, making basketball rudimentary through sixth grade, the year he joined his first travel team.

“When I started travel ball, I wasn’t the biggest guy,” Douglass recalled. “Everywhere I went, there were guys taller than me. … Until then, I didn’t have a post game. I’d just turn and lay the ball in. My coaches helped me out with developing a post game. My dad, too, working with me in the front yard.”

In 2012, his freshman year of high school, Douglass enrolled at Parkview School in Placentia, an independent studies school. He played previously in Yorba Linda High’s feeder basketball program, where Pietsch first saw glimpses of the gangly, relentless kid he coaches today.

Douglass and his junior varsity teammates at Yorba Linda went 20-6 in 2012, with Douglass playing heavy minutes on a sophomore-laden team. He ascended to varsity the following season, the lone sophomore on a team of 12.

In his first game last winter, Douglass scored 24 points against Irvine High, grabbing 17 rebounds to boot. Yorba Linda won, 63-40, capturing its first of 18 wins. Douglass played in all 30 games last season, averaging a team-high 15.9 points, 7.1 rebounds and nearly two assists.

Yorba Linda upset Beverly Hills High, the sixth-ranked team in Division 3AA, last year in the first round of the playoffs, before falling in the second round two days later.

Douglass tied the Beverly Hills game in regulation with a shot at the buzzer, finishing the night with 17 points and six rebounds.

“What separates Isaac from other kids is the confidence level he has,” Pietsch said. “He’s extremely confident, not only in himself and his abilities, but in his everyday life. Confidence is such a huge factor, especially with teenage boys and teenage sports.”

Douglass spent much of his sophomore season learning leadership under the tutelage of teammate Brad Johnson.

At 6-6, Johnson played basketball above the rim, where he averaged 14 points per game last season.

Douglass saw how much work went into becoming a top player and team captain. Johnson, who now plays at Dominican University of California, was a lead-by-example guy, Douglass said.

“I’m not there yet,” Douglass added. “But I’m getting there.”

Pietsch and Yorba Linda assistant coach Joe Yezbak have more than 50 years of basketball experience between them. Both played in college, where Pietsch believes Douglass can continue his career with proper training and the right mindset.

Douglass participated in the Santa Clara University Elite Camp this summer, developing his game against some of the state’s best players.

His shot improved in the offseason, as did his footwork and court awareness. He is ahead of the curve for his age, with an inside-out game accentuated by Pietsch’s offense and the shooters around him.

Douglass is already receiving emails from college coaches, and Pietsch and Yezbak have valuable connections everywhere.

“Isaac has to work on some of his physical tools off the court: his strength, speed and overall athleticism,” Pietsch said. “That’s day in and day out stuff. He’s very gifted offensively, and he’s continuing to work on certain moves and footwork as it’s related to shooting and driving.

“If he improves his body, his dieting, things like that, he’s gonna have a good little future.”

Contact the writer: 714-704-3790 or bwhitehead@ocregister.com