Jason Gregson of Woodbridge goes up for a basket Monday night.
PHOTO COURTESY JAMES ELLIOTT
Woodbridge High's boys basketball team overcame a 12-point deficit with four minutes left to defeat San Clemente, 69-67, in the opening round Monday of the Diablo Inferno Basketball Tournament in Mission Viejo.
Michael Scarlett hit a trio of 3-pointers during the comeback.
Jason Gregson led Woodbridge with 13 points.
“It was a close, fast-paced game throughout with San Clemente ahead, 31-27, at half and 47-42 after three quarters,” said coach John Halagan.
San Clemente increased its lead to 57-45 after a 3-pointer by Nick Crenshaw at the 4:08 mark.
Woodbridge took a timeout and decided to extend its defense to a full-court scrambling and trapping scheme to increase the number of possessions, Halagan said.
“It worked as we forced some turnovers and converted them to easy baskets,” he said.
Scarlett made 4-of-4 free throws and scored 15 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter.
Gregson scored eight of his 13 points in the fourth quarter on aggressive drives to the basket.
Truman Brown also made two free throws late in the game to seal the victory.
“As first games go, that was a great experience for our guys,” Halagan said.
“With the tempo being so fast we were able to go deep into our bench. We played 11 guys and had solid bench play from Jack Calhoun, Joey Carrillo, Jack Elliott and Sami Soufian. Brown did a nice job of attacking the defense and distributing the ball.
“Jason Gregson and Michael Scarlett both had huge fourth quarters (they scored 23 of our 27 points in that quarter), which helped turn the tide for us. The encouraging thing is we played through our mistakes and overcame some adversity with many guys playing in their first varsity game.”
The tournament continues through Saturday.
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