IRVINE — Woodbridge’s boys basketball team erased a 13-point deficit in the fourth quarter to beat Portola 51-50 in the championship game of the Pacific Coast League tournament Tuesday at Woodbridge High.
The Warriors (19-9, 6-3) entered the league tournament after finishing third in the league standings. Woodbridge has now won two of the last three league championships, having also won in 2024.
“My biggest message for these guys was, ‘build your legacy,’” Woodbridge coach Steve Scoggin said. “We’ve had teams do that in the past and every year is a different year. All these guys are building their own legacies and that’s what we want here.”
The win snapped a 15-game winning streak by Portola (22-6, 9-1), which was undefeated in league play entering Tuesday.
Woodbridge trailed by 10 points entering the fourth quarter and by 13 points early in the quarter. The Warriors outscored Portola 17-6 in the final quarter and went on an 8-0 run to end the game.
The Warriors’ Jaiden Sabino, who made just one field goal in the first three quarters of the game, scored 10 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter. His biggest shot might have been his go-ahead 3-pointer that gave Woodbridge a 51-50 lead with two minutes remaining in the game.
“The first three quarters I was trying to get my teammates involved but we were down in the fourth so I had to take it into my own hands and be more aggressive,” Sabino said. “The shots fell and my teammates gave me the boost I needed to hit those clutch shots.”
Sabino missed much of league play due to a broken hand on his non-shooting hand. One of the games he missed was Woodbridge’s loss to Portola 50-48.
“He’s the soul of this team,” Scoggin said of Sabino. “When he was out the first five games of league, you noticed it. When he came back we were a different team. Great players show up at the right time and he did tonight.”
Woodbridge’s conditioning appeared to play a big factor in its rally. The Warriors’ home gym was very hot due to the capacity crowd and Portola’s players showed signs of fatigue.
“This is how we practice,” Sabino said. “They were uncomfortable because they have that nice air conditioning over at Portola, so we sweated them out. We are just used to that heat.”
Woodbridge also had four offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter that led to some second-chance points. Kishan Pandhoh and Zaccaria Saleh each had two offensive rebounds in the quarter.
Pandhoh had a game-high 10 rebounds.
Portola led by three points at halftime and outscored Woodbridge 19-12 in the third quarter to build a 10-point lead.
Ryan Novak led Portola with 12 points and Max Paulsen added 10 points with eight rebounds.
“They ran their stuff and they were hitting shots. They were tough,” Scoggin said of Portola. “They’ve been knocking down shots all year long. Our heads were down a little bit but we took it one possession at a time and rallied around our seniors.”
Jahan Adloo had 15 points for Woodbridge with three 3-pointers and Saleh added 14 points.
Portola most recently won the Pacific Coast League championship in 2022.
Both teams earned automatic berths in the CIF-SS playoffs that begin next week.
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