TORRANCE – The North Torrance boys basketball team had gone 52 years without making a trip to the semifinals, but the Saxons were intent on making history Tuesday night.
Gabe Nakano scored five of his 10 points in the game’s final 65 seconds, and North Torrance defeated visiting Mission Viejo, 64-59, in the CIF-SS Division 3-AA quarterfinals.
North (19-10) will host Brentwood in the semifinals on Friday.
“The first thing I think of when I hear 1965 is making history,” said Nakano on North’s previous semifinal berth.
North’s hopes of advancing grew bleak after Mission Viejo (16-13) turned a seven-point, fourth-quarter deficit into a 55-53 lead with 1:50 to play.
After Alex Ezeani hit one of his two free throws, he picked Chris Meyer’s pocket after an inbound pass and made a bank-shot with 1:31 to play gave North a 56-55 lead.
Ezeani scored 14 points and added six rebounds, two blocks and two steals.
“I was very tense. I knew if we lost this game, the season’s over,” Ezeani said. “But I was excited. We had the momentum and gave everything we had.”
Following a Mission Viejo turnover with 1:19 to play, Nakano sank a wide-open 3-pointer to give the Saxons a four-point lead.
Micah Bisharah (21 points) did everything he could to get Mission Viejo within striking distance, He scored the Diablos’ final four points.
Shea Eddington made 3-pointer for North with 22 seconds left before Nakano converted two free throws with 12.3 seconds to play.
“North was poised and they stayed poised,” Bisharah said. “They never gave up and went the extra inch.”
Bisharah scored nine of the Diablos’ first 20 points. But North found ways to get Mission Viejo out of its offense.
“Mission Viejo is so good at handling the ball that we had to keep the pressure up,” North Torrance coach Gary Duperron said. “We took chances and got steals. We didn’t change anything, we just did a better job.”
North totaled nine steals, including five in the second quarter when the Saxons turned a four-point deficit into a 30-27 halftime lead.
Arthur Weimholt finished with 16 points for Mission Viejo.
“(North) is one of the fastest teams I’ve ever seen,” Bisharah said. “I give them a lot of credit — they’re hard to keep up with.”
