HUNTINGTON BEACH – Edison will be making its first trip to the CIF-Southern Section boys basketball semifinals next week in 21 years. Appropriately, the achievement came via a slew of 3-point field goals that all seemed to be from 21 feet or longer.
Senior Brae Ivey hit four 3-pointers, each seemingly longer the other, in the second half and A.J. Garrity had three on the night as the Chargers beat Valencia, 68-53, at Edison in the Division 1A quarterfinals. Ivey finished with 27 points and Garrity with 20.
Edison (24-6) will be home Tuesday for its semifinal against No. 1 seed Loyola (20-9), a 93-78 winner over Walnut on Friday.
It’s the Chargers’ first trip to the semifinals since 1994, when the Chargers went on to lose to Mater Dei in the 1A finals.
Leading, 29-26, at the half, Ivey hit a 3-pointer from deep on the right wing, followed that with a 3 from the left baseline, made a 2-pointer with a nice kiss of the backboard and drilled his third 3 of the quarter from even deeper on the right wing to push the Chargers’ lead to 10.
Ivey had another 3 and Garrity a 3-pointer and a 3-point play to push the margin to a comfortable 17 points early in the final quarter.
“Brae is the straw that stirs our drink,” Edison coach Rich Boyle said. “He’s the one guy we look to when we need a big play. He made it hard for Valencia to double team.”
“It’s what I do, all my (basketball) life,” Ivey (first name pronounced bray) said after the win. “I’ve practiced taking thousands of shots to build up my confidence.
“(Valencia) plays tight defense. They weren’t giving me much space so I had to find ways to create it. They couldn’t double me that far away.”
Garrity’s 20-point effort also was clutch. He made a beautiful 3-pointer off a neat pass in/pass out with teammate Jake Haar for the 3-point halftime lead, and the crushing steal, score and free throw early in the final quarter.
Valencia’s Eric Yang had the early hot hand, with five baskets, 3 of them 3-pointers, early into the second half, but the Tigers went six minutes without a field goal in the third quarter.
Contact the writer: bkeisser@lbregister.com
