HUNTINGTON BEACH – Ocean View’s basketball team played a sharp, composed first half Friday night at Huntington Beach and seemed in control at the half despite a scrappy effort by the Oilers.
But then the Oilers turned scrappy into an almost flawless third quarter.
Trailing by seven, the Oilers made 11 consecutive shots, seven of them 3-pointers, as part of a stunning 23-2 run, ending the quarter with 31 points enroute to a 90-70 nonleague win over the Seahawks.
Noah Gonzalez scored 22 points, Sean Strom 19, Reed Slack 13 and Hayden Moore 12 to lift the Oilers to 4-3 overall as the Oilers made 15 3-pointers in the game.
The win came against an Ocean View team that won 13 of its last 15 a year ago and returned nine players from that team. Zamir Kelly and Bryson Betti each had 16 for the Seahawks (4-3).
“We have a scrappy team that works real hard,” Oiler coach Billy Thompson said. “We’re capable of that kind of run when we work as hard as we do.”
The Oilers led by a point late in the first quarter but didn’t make a field goal over the next five minutes and Ocean View turned it into a 17-4 run and a 33-21 lead. Gonzalez and Strom hit 3-pointers to quell the run and cut the margin to five at the half. The third-quarter eruption was a sight, one jumper after another finding the net at the same time that the Oilers improved on the boards.
“I’m a big fan of creating your own luck,” Ocean View coach Tim Walsh said. “We looked like we were in control in the first half, but (the Oilers) were still scrapping away and never stopped hustling. Then their shots began to drop.”
“It’s a good lesson for our team that we have to play at that same level even when it seems things are going well for us.”
Contact the writer: bkeisser@ocregister.com
