IRVINE – Esperanza held off a fourth-quarter rally by Woodbridge to capture a 61-52 victory in the championship semifinals of the Irvine World News / Gary Raya Classic on Friday night at Irvine.
The Aztecs (7-2) moved into the championship of the 16-team tournament to face San Clemente today at 6 p.m. at Tustin High.
“For the most part, we weathered the storm, so I’m happy with that,” said Esperanza coach Mark Hill.
Esperanza had a 30-19 lead at halftime and led, 45-34, after three quarters. But Woodbridge (4-5) battled back in the fourth quarter, cutting the lead to six with 6:15 left in the game.
The Warriors made one last charge, cutting the lead to 54-47 on a 3-pointer by Ryan Eisendrath with 1:37 remaining. But Esperanza was able to close out the win, giving the Aztecs a chance to capture their first Irvine tournament.
Esperanza was led by senior guard Jarrett Brodbeck, who scored 15 points. Brodbeck, who has been averaging 25 points a game, had two points in the first half but responded with a big fourth quarter, scoring seven points.
Marcus Kinan added 11 points and three 3-pointers for Esperanza.
“To be a good basketball team, you have to have other people step up, and we did,” Hill said. “We had guys making shots in the first half. We know teams are going to try and take away a guy who is averaging 25 points a game.”
Woodbridge was led by Sam Soufian, who scored 18 points and Adjin Toskic, who had 11 points.
“Our guys have a lot of fight in them,” said Woodbridge coach John Halagan. “We just didn’t shoot it well tonight. We had some balls go in and out and we missed a lot of point-blank shots.
“Our execution at times wasn’t quite there, but Esperanza does that to you because they’re very good defensively.”
San Clemente reached the final by beating Tustin, 54-50, on Friday.
Woodbridge will play in the third-place game today at 4:30 p.m. at Tustin.
Contact the writer: tburt@ocregister.com
