League play begins in the South Coast League this week and opens with an outstanding matchup.
Tesoro, No. 11 in the Orange County Top 25, plays at No. 13 Capistrano Valley in a 7 p.m. game Wednesday in the league opener for the two league favorites. Tesoro is 17-3 overall and Capistrano Valley is 12-4.
The five-team South Coast League includes San Clemente, San Juan Hills and Trabuco Hills.
Capistrano Valley and Tesoro have deep rosters led by standout seniors Carson Brown of Tesoro and Efe Gucoglu of Capistrano Valley.
Brown, a 6-3 guard, was All-Orange County first team last season. Brown was an MVP of the Beach Bash tournament last month and made the all-tournament team at the Tustin Classic post-Christmas tournament. At the Tustin Classic he scored 21 points in the Titans’ semifinals win over Tustin and in the Orange County North/South Challenge scored 15 points with 11 rebounds in a win over Cypress.
Gucoglu, a 6-4 guard, led Capistrano Valley to the championship of the Design Pro Division of the Desert Holiday Classic post-Christmas tournament at Rancho Mirage. He scored 40 points in the championship game win over Portola. Gucoglu averaged 22 points and six rebounds during the Cougars’ four games in the Desert Holiday Classic while shooting 62 percent on two-point shots and 50 percent on 3-pointers.
Tesoro’s Nathan Draper scored 21 points with seven rebounds and five assists and Blake Manning scored 12 points with nine assists in the Titans’ 65-46 win over Fresno Central on Saturday. Cougars seniors Jalen Constantino and Jackson Gray made the Desert Holiday Classic’s Design Pro Division all-tournament team.
NOTES
The South Coast League is part of the two-league Coast View Athletic Association. The CVAA’s other league is the Sea View League. For boys basketball – CVAA league membership varies by sport – the Sea View League has Aliso Niguel, Dana Hills, El Toro and Mission Viejo. …
The big matchup Friday in the Trinity League has No. 1 Mater Dei (14-3, 1-1) playing at No. 2 Santa Margarita (18-3, 2-0) at 7 p.m. Santa Margarita last week defeated Orange Lutheran and JSerra in league games. Mater Dei beat JSerra and lost to St. John Bosco. …
Trinity League teams are a combined 82-26 going into this week. Their combined winning percentage is 75.9. …
La Habra sophomore Grayson Sinek is the son of Scott Sinek, an All-CIF player at Servite who is the school’s single-season scoring leader with 585 points in the 1980-81 season. Scott Sinek is a La Habra assistant coach. Like his father, Grayson Sinek can score in multiple ways; he scored a game-high 21 points in the Highlanders’ 64-49 Freeway League win over Sunny Hills on Friday. …
In recent days in the Sunset Conference: Newport Harbor beat Los Alamitos in overtime, Marina beat Newport Harbor, Corona del Mar beat Marina and Huntington Beach beat Fountain Valley. And all of those could be categorized as upsets.
