Redondo and Mayfair in Pac Shores title game

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REDONDO BEACH, Ca. – The St. John Bosco Braves may yet prove to be the best basketball team in California.

But, on Friday afternoon, they weren’t the best team in their semifinal of the 62nd Pacific Shores Tournament at Redondo High.

Despite a building a lead that once reached 13 points, the Braves couldn’t cope with the overall quickness and determination of the much-smaller Mayfair Monsoons, 60-56.

After struggling in the first half, Ocean View transfers Dillon Reise and Kendall Small scored 13 and 12 points, respectively, for the Monsoons with all of Reise’s points coming in the second half.

But the key performer for Mayfair was a long-timer at the school, senior guard Nwabuzor, who scored 18 points and did as good a job as possible of guarding Braves’ junior Tyler Dorsey.

Daniel Hamilton led the Braves with 20 points while Dorsey added 19 and freshman Billy Preston chipped in with 12 (and a game-high 16 rebounds).

The 24^th game of the tournament – and other semifinal – proved to be, perhaps, even more remarkable that the SJB-Mayfair clash.

The host Sea Hawks trailed by 15 points going into the fourth quarter against defending L.A. City champion Westchester and by 11 with a bit more than five minutes to go.

But Redondo, behind senior point guard Ian Fox (who scored 16 of his game-high 29 points in the fourth quarter), including two free throws with 4.4 seconds to put his team up to stay with what proved to be the final score, 65-64.

Center Terrell Carter cinched things by picking off the inbound pass and holding the ball long enough for time to expire.

The victory means the tournament’s No’s 3 (Redondo) and 5 (Mayfair) seeds – with No. 1 St. John Bosco and No. 2 Westchester being knocked into the third-place game – will hook up for the title Saturday night.

Saturday’s complete schedule: 9 a.m., Rolling Hills Prep vs. Peninsula; 10:30, Palos Verdes vs. Morningside; Noon, Pacific Hills vs. Millikan; 1:30 p.m., Compton vs. Campbell Hall; 3, Narbonne vs. Long Beach Poly; 4:30, Calabasas vs. Lawndale; 6, St. John Bosco vs. Westchester; 7:30, Redondo vs. Mayfair.