Rally clinches share

The Laguna Beach High boys’ basketball team has some unfinished business to settle.

Perhaps it will take a tough lesson learned at the end of last season to finish this year on a high note.

The Breakers clinched no worse than a tie for their third-straight Orange Coast League title on Jan. 30 by staging a furious rally against visiting Calvary Chapel to come away with an improbable 51-46 overtime victory at Dugger Gym.

But Laguna, now 6-0 in league and 18-5 overall, has put that incredible win behind it and didn’t dare entertain any title talk.

“As far as we’re concerned, we haven’t won anything,” Laguna Coach Bret Fleming said. “Our only goal is to win Friday night at Estancia. That’s all we’re looking at.”

It’s a game that the Breakers dare not look past.

It’s a trap they fell into last year during the last game of the regular season.

“We had the league title wrapped up heading into the Estancia game and we had a letdown,” Fleming recalled.

“We were flat and just weren’t ready to play and they beat us on a last-second three-point shot. We don’t want a repeat of that.”

Laguna certainly wasn’t looking past Calvary Chapel last Friday, although the Breakers did dig themselves into what seemed to be an insurmountable hole, a 21-4 deficit midway through the second quarter. They still trailed by 17 points with seven minutes left in the game. “It didn’t look too promising,” Fleming said, but his team staged a furious rally to force overtime.

They did it, too, with Ryan Lawler having fouled out early in the fourth quarter, with Dylan Roley “” who began the game wrapped and bandaged due to two sprained wrists “” fighting through his bondage to score 14 of his game-high 16 points in the decisive fourth quarter, with Adam Selevan hitting a clutch three-point shot with 42 seconds left to draw Laguna within two points and with Christian Kesler knocking down two free throws with 13 seconds left to tie the score and send the game to overtime.

The Breakers outscored the Eagles, 9-4, in overtime. The loss denied Calvary Chapel a chance to catch Laguna in the league standings.

Instead, the Eagles (3-2) were dropped two games back of the Breakers.

Kesler hit four three-point shots in the game to finish with 13 points.

“Calvary Chapel completely outplayed us,” Fleming said. “But our kids never quit and we had some clutch performances down the stretch to pull out the win.

“I thought John Palfreyman really stepped up with some huge steals and some good passes in the second half.”

Following tonight’s game at Estancia, Laguna will conclude its regular season at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Costa Mesa.

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Girls’ Basketball

The season comes to an end Tuesday for the Breakers when they play a 7 p.m. Orange Coast League game at Costa Mesa.

Laguna played host to Estancia on Thursday on Senior Night, but the score wasn’t available at press time.

In previous action, Laguna dropped a 68-45 league game to visiting Calvary Chapel on Jan. 29. Emily Writer led all scorers with 29 points, but the Breakers couldn’t overcome Sam Garner’s foul troubles and four Eagles scoring in double figures.

“The season hasn’t gone quite how we expected, but we are young and getting better with each game,” Laguna Coach Jon Hendrickson said. “The 12 girls we have are very dedicated and now understand what it takes to win games and be committed.

“I’ve enjoyed this season because I’ve seen a young team grow up very quickly and each individual girl get better.”