IRVINE – Woodbridge won the battle on the front line Friday night and came away with a 57-46 victory over Northwood in a Pacific Coast League game at Woodbridge.
The Warriors (8-11, 2-1) used the one-two punch of 6-foot-4 seniors Sami Soufian (19 points) and Adjin Toskic (18 points) to win the first of two meetings against the Timberwolves (11-8, 2-1)
Soufian, along with juniors Vik Ghadi and J.T. Okonkwo, held Northwood star Jake Linsky to 20 points. Linsky had been averaging 30 points in his first two league games.
Northwood’s other front line player, Cameron Miles, scored 12 points.
“Coming in, Northwood had the best one-two front line punch in the league with Linsky and Miles,” Woodbridge coach John Halagan said. “Those guys have been very productive in the first two games of league.
“But we think our front line is pretty good, too, and tonight both Sami and Adjin played very well and we were in attack mode from the get-go. And we kept them off the arc, which is what we wanted to do.”
Northwood had just one 3-point field goal in the game.
Woodbridge also got a lift from sophomore guard Mitchell Rausch, who scored nine points and hit two 3-pointers, including one late in the third quarter that put the Warriors ahead, 39-32.
Woodbridge led, 42-34, after three quarters and eventually built its lead to 14 points.
“It was a tough game. We all worked so hard,” Soufian said. “Our coaches wanted to beat this team real bad. We played great D and we contained Linsky and Cameron Miles. It was a great win. The help side (defense) was playing great.”
Ghadi guarded Linsky for much of the first half and although he wound up picking up four fouls, it prevented Soufian from getting in foul trouble.
Soufian and Okonkwo picked up the defensive slack in the second half. Okonkwo also had a a dunk off a steal that brought the Warriors fans to their feet late in the first half.
“J.T. Okonkwo did a nice job in the second half doing the majority of the work on Linsky,” Halagan said. “You can’t stop him, he had 20 tonight, but at least J.T. is long enough and athletic enough to make him work and that’s all we can ask for in that situation. It was a nice team win for us.”
Akshay Harishankar added 11 points for Northwood.
Contact the writer: tburt@ocregister.com
