Brea Olinda Shows Best Form in Final

First-year Brea Olinda Coach Bob Terry wasn’t kidding when he said he thought the Wildcats have a chance to defeat any team, any time when “we play our game.”

The Wildcats showed why their coach is so confident. Saturday night they filled the second quarter with three-pointers in the Edison International Tournament championship game and beat Newport Harbor, 61-36, at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Brea guard Kyle Dodd, the tournament’s most valuable player, led all scorers with 24 points. He also had eight assists. Forward Jerett Skrifvars, an all-tournament selection, added 14 points and 11 rebounds.

Brea (4-1) was quicker and more dominant in all facets of the game. The Wildcats took control in the second quarter, running off 12 unanswered points to take a 28-11 lead. Brea finished the quarter with five three-pointers and built a 33-14 halftime lead.

The assault continued in the third quarter. When Dodd buried another three-pointer with 41 seconds left, Brea led, 49-23.

“If we play like that we can beat anybody,” said Terry, a longtime assistant to veteran Gene Lloyd, who retired at the end of last season. “You saw what we could do tonight. Our defense was a real key, but it didn’t hurt that Kyle was feeling it tonight, too.”

Newport Harbor (4-1) just couldn’t match Brea’s hot shooting . The Sailors made 13 of 39 field-goal attempts.

In other tournament games:

Trabuco Hills 66, Villa Park 65--The Spartans (3-3), who trailed by as many as 10 points, rallied to pull within a point and had the ball with 14 seconds left in the third-place game. But Adam Keith’s 12-foot jumper with four seconds left fell short and Trabuco Hills (4-2) got the ball back with a second to go.

Tustin 57, Sonora 51--Two preseason top-10 teams that figured to have a shot at making the championship game, fought it out in the consolation final with Tustin overcoming a nine-point halftime deficit to win.

The Tillers (4-2) outscored the Raiders, 22-8, in the third quarter. Junior Chris Chatman, one of four Tustin players in double figures, led all scorers with 23 points. Sonora fell to 4-2.

Capistrano Valley 65, Los Alamitos 60--The Cougars (4-1) got 27 points from J.J. Sola and 17 from Nathan Hair to outlast the Griffins (3-3) in the fifth-place game. Andrew Pleick scored 25 points and Ron Prettyman had 16 for the Los Alamitos (3-3).

Katella 66, Cypress 53--Matt Tisthammer scored 21 points for Katella (6-2), which stopped a two-game losing streak in a consolation game.