ANAHEIM – So much for homecourt advantage in San Joaquin League boys basketball. Pacifica Christian beat Fairmont Prep 67-55 on Tuesday in a league game at Fairmont Prep. Two weeks ago, Fairmont Prep beat Pacifica Christian at Pacifica Christian.

Pacifica Christian, No. 8 in the Orange County Top 25, improved to 3-1 in the four-team league. No. 7 Fairmont Prep is 4-1. Fairmont Prep, 15-9 overall, has one league game remaining, a home game against San Gabriel Academy, on Thursday. The Huskies conclude the regular season Saturday against Hesperia. Pacifica Christian (17-7) has two league games remaining. The Tritons are home against Western Christian on Friday and at San Gabriel Academy on Monday. The regular season ends Feb. 5, with CIF Southern Section playoff brackets to be released Feb. 8.

Pacifica Christian junior guard Michael Noel scored a team-high 15 points including four 3-point baskets. Senior guard EJ Spillman scored 14 points on seven 2-point baskets of every variety – power drives, spinning drives, fallaway jump shots and pull-up jump shots. Tritons junior forward Austin Brinker, who entered the game averaging 2 points a game, scored 14 points – seven points in the first half and seven in the second half.

Junior guard Leroy Davis led Fairmont Prep with 15 points on five 3-point baskets. Senior guards Marcus Fernandez and Oliver Jones scored 13 and 10 points respectively for the Huskies. The Tritons, usually a man-to-man defensive group, went with a 2-3 zone defense and established defensive intensity from the opening tip. "I'm not a zone guy," said Pacifica Christian coach Jeff Berokoff. "But, shoot, there were five, six, seven possessions in a row they didn't score? So I said, heck, let's stay with it."

Spillman liked the way Pacifica Christian maintained that intensity throughout the 32-minute game. "We lost at home," Spillman said, "so we needed to get this one back."

It was tied 5-5 in the first quarter before Pacifica Christian began to dominate the game. The Huskies made five turnovers in the quarter and the Tritons seemed to always have a player hanging around at halfcourt ready to take a long lead pass for an uncontested layup. outscored the Huskies 18-5 the rest of the way in the quarter to take a 23-10 lead into the second quarter. Brinker scored seven points in the second quarter, including going 5 for 6 at the free-throw line, to help Pacifica Christian to a 39-25 halftime lead.

Davis made three 3-pointers in the third quarter as the Huskies cut their deficit to seven points. Brinker made a 3 with 1:25 to go in the quarter to make it a 10 point lead, and the Tritons were able to build off of that for a 56-39 lead at the end of the quarter.

Fairmont Prep got as close as 60-52 in the fourth quarter. The Tritons got back-to-back baskets off of inbounds plays from the opposing baseline – a layup by Logan Stewart and a 3-pointer by Noel – to firmly regain momentum.

 Steve Fryer | sfryer@scng.com | Orange County Register | Published January 28, 2025 at 10:30PM PST