Northwood boys basketball earns big win over Beckman in close Pacific Coast League race – Orange County Register

IRVINE — Northwood stayed atop the Pacific Coast League boys basketball standings by beating Beckman 78-68 on Friday at Northwood High.

Entering Friday, four of the league’s eight teams were tied for first place with 3-1 league records. After the games on Friday, Northwood (17-6, 4-1) is tied with Sage Hill in first place.

Beckman (12-11, 3-2) is behind the leaders, in a three-way tie with Woodbridge and Irvine.

“It’s a big win because there was a four-way tie for first,” Northwood coach Christian Manolo said. “We want to be in control of our destiny and that starts with winning.”

The Pacific Coast League is unique as the teams play each other only once instead of twice like most leagues. After the league game are finished on Wednesday, Jan. 24, the teams will play each other in a tournament in which seeding is determined by the results of the first round of league games.

Northwood won Friday due to its relentless barrage of 3-pointers. The Timberwolves made 15 3-pointers on 33 attempts for a 45 percent clip.

Three players made at least four 3-pointers for Northwood with Sidd Raj leading the team with five.

“It’s no secret that we get 3s up,” Manolo said. “But the thing is we are balanced and it’s usually a great shot. I let them have their freedom and I trust them to make those shots.”

“It’s super fun,” Northwood senior forward Zaid Yunis said. “I feel like coach gives us the green light to shoot when we want.”

Yunis entered Friday averaging a team-high 19 points per game. He started the game making only one of his first six shots, but he reverted back to normal and scored 19 points with six rebounds.

TJ Navarro added 15 points with four 3-pointers.

A big reason Northwood continuously got open looks from 3-point range was due to its ball movement. The Timberwolves had 17 assists with Ryan Abaye leading the team with eight.

“We are a ‘one more’ program, that’s something that we focus on,” Manolo said. “We hope that the ball falls to the guys that we want shooting, but we trust everybody. As long as we make that one more pass, it works playing unselfish like that.”

Beckman cut the Northwood lead to eight points in the fourth quarter, but the Timberwolves got enough defensive stops to keep Beckman at arm’s length.

Caydon Do had a double-double for the Patriots with 21 points and 11 rebounds. Isaac Liu had 12 points with five assists and Qusai Asem added 10 points.

Northwood will host last-place Laguna Hills on Monday before wrapping the first round of league games Wednesday at Irvine.

Beckman will play at Woodbridge on Monday.