ORANGE – Fourth-ranked Orange Lutheran defeated seventh-ranked JSerra, 58-43, at home Friday night in a Trinity League boys basketball game.
Orange Lutheran (15-3, 3-1) has won three straight since a loss to top-ranked Mater Dei, 71-62, last week. JSerra (13-5, 0-3) has lost three in a row.
Neither team got off to a great start offensively as only five points were scored in the game’s first three minutes. Orange Lutheran emerged from the first quarter with a 13-8 lead.
Orange Lutheran coach Chris Nordstrom said that with a big win Wednesday and a game at De La Salle next Monday, his players might not have been fully focused for Friday’s tipoff.
“You’ve got to play every game in this league, and I don’t think we were really ready to start,” he said.
They were certainly ready by the second quarter, when the Lancers outscored the Lions 19-4 and jumped to a 32-12 halftime lead.
Junior point guard Joseph Riley was the spark plug for Orange Lutheran’s big run, scoring the Lancers’ first six points of the second quarter. Riley finished with a game-high 15 points.
Three of JSerra’s five starters went scoreless in the first half. The first-half offense rested on the shoulders of junior forward Sebastian Much, who made two of nine shots in the half.
Much finished with a team-high 11 points and nine rebounds, which tied senior center Steele Brenner for the team high.
The Lancers got the crowd on its feet in the third quarter, when KaVaughn Scott had two dunks.
