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    Fountain Valley boys basketball stuns Newport Harbor by overcoming 21-point deficit
    • January 23, 2025

    NEWPORT BEACH — The Fountain Valley boys basketball team came into its Sunset League game against Newport Harbor on Wednesday in need of a victory to boost its playoff hopes.

    It wasn’t looking good for the Barons, who trailed by 21 points midway through the third quarter at Newport Harbor High School.

    But suddenly, long-range shots that hadn’t been falling began swishing through the hoop, and Barons came all the way back to earn a 62-58 victory over the Sailors.

    The victory puts the Barons (16-8 overall, 3-5 league) in a fourth-place tie with the Sailors (15-9, 3-5) with four league games remaining for both teams.

    “It kind of gets us back to the middle,” Barons coach Brendan Holmes said of the victory. “The goal is to try to go forward, beat the teams we’ve already beaten to help with any tiebreak situation.”

    The Barons, who are ranked No. 20 in the county, have defeated Newport Harbor twice and would own the tiebreaker against the Sailors, who are No. 18 in the rankings.

    Jack Berry scored 21 points in the first half to help the Sailors take a 16-point halftime lead.

    Baskets on connective possessions by Vaughan Casey gave the Sailors a 45-24 lead in the third.

    A pair of free throws from Troy Leach then kicked off an 18-2 run for the Barons.

    Aaron DeSantiago, who finished with 21 points for the Barons, scored 14 points during the run, including three 3-pointers.

    Devin Payne kept the surge going in the fourth for the Barons, hitting three 3-pointers, including a basket from behind the arc to tie the score at 50 and then a basket to give Fountain Valley a 52-50 lead with under five minutes remaining.

    The score was tied twice in the final minutes before Payne’s basket put the Barons ahead for good, 60-58, with 30 seconds remaining.

    Newport Harbor missed on the ensuing possession and was forced to start fouling.

    The Sailors had three fouls to give but after the fourth foul, Payne hit a pair of free throws with four seconds remaining to put the game away.

    The victory snapped a three-game losing streak for the Barons.

    “The last three games we came out kind of soft and tonight we did the same thing,” DeSantiago said. “And our coach kind of got on us about it. We all kind of took that and we used it as motivation to kind of go into the third and fourth quarter.”

    Another big key to Fountain Valley’s comeback was holding Berry to four points in the third quarter and no points in the fourth.

    “(Holmes) wanted me to start denying him and not helping at all,” said Payne, who was tasked with the job of guarding Berry. “After he pulled up and hit a three right in my mouth at the top of the key, that kind of hit me a little bit and made me take him a little more serious and get up on him more.”

    Newport Harbor’s remaining league games are against Huntington Beach, Los Alamitos, Edison and Corona del Mar.

    The Barons close out against Corona del Mar, Marina, Huntington Beach and Los Alamitos.

     

    ​ Orange County Register 

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