ALISO VIEJO — Segerstrom’s boys basketball team pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the season thus far by beating Aliso Niguel 53-42 Thursday in a nonleague game at Aliso Niguel High.

Aliso Niguel entered the game with a 10-2 record, six straight wins and was coming off a win over Tesoro, which is No. 21 this week in the Register’s Orange County Top 25.

Segerstrom entered the game 3-6 after starting out 1-6 record.

Aliso Niguel was celebrating its senior night and opted to play solely its seniors for nearly the entire first quarter rather than its three top players who are underclassmen.

Segerstrom took advantage of the senior bench players getting minutes and opened the game with a 21-0 run that went into the second quarter.

“I told the kids that when they play the seniors, they think it’s a guaranteed win for them,” Segerstrom coach Rex Gonzales said. “We took it personally. That’s a great program over there and I respect their coaches and seniors, but it’s a slap to our face. I told our guys when they got off the bus that we were going to earn some respect today.”

Aliso Niguel cut the lead to four points entering the fourth quarter, but the large deficit from earlier in the game was too large. Segerstrom forced nine turnovers in the fourth quarter and made 12 free throws to fend off the comeback attempt.

Segerstrom’s defense forced 24 turnovers and held Aliso Niguel to 19 percent shooting from 3-point range. The Wolverines didn’t make a 3-point shot until the fourth quarter and missed their first 12 3-pointers.

“We just watched film and had an understanding of their strengths,” Gonzales said. “I told the boys that if we keep the score in the low 50s or high 40s, we will win the game. They want to speed the game up so we wanted to slow down and make them play at our pace.”

After building the big lead, Segerstrom did enough offensively to keep Aliso Niguel at arm’s distance. Andrew Aguilar, Ricky Carballea and Nicholas Cervantes each had 11 points for the Jaguars.

Aguilar made three 3-pointers off the bench for Segerstrom and had a crucial offensive rebound in the fourth quarter.

“He hasn’t started the last three games, but as a senior, he took it well and led by example,” Gonzales said. “A lot of players would have thrown a fit or mentally quit. He was locked into the game even when he wasn’t playing. So when his time came I told him to let it fly and see what happens.”

Jayden Mysin led Aliso Niguel with 24 points despite playing only one minute of the first quarter. The junior scored 13 of his points in the fourth quarter and made all three of his 3-pointers in the frame.

Jay Keys had 10 points for the Wolverines and Ivan Kostov had 10 rebounds.

Segerstrom is on a three-game winning streak and will host Godinez in a Golden West League game Friday. The Jaguars lost to Godinez 59-46 in their season opener.

Gonzales believes Thursday’s win could be a big momentum swing for Segerstrom.

“We started off the season pretty rough and it was a learning experience for myself as a first-year head coach and for the team,” Gonzales said. “This is great momentum. The kids are hungry right now which is a good feeling for a coach.”

Aliso Niguel will play University Saturday in the North/South Challenge at Tesoro High.

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