REDONDO BEACH, Ca. – Four competitive Ryse Williams/Pac Shores Tournament quarterfinals on Tuesday set the stage for a couple of intriguing championship semifinals on Friday night.
L.A. City Section squads Westchester (over Dominguez) and Narbonne (over Oak Park) collected victories against strong Southern Section teams to set up an “L.A. City Open Division playoff preview game” of sorts at 8 o’clock Friday night.
And host Redondo Union got a 29-point effort from senior guard Zekiah LoVett to hold off Mayfair and gifted sophomores Josh Christopher (31 points) to earn its spot in a 6:30 Friday semifinal against Santa Margarita, which held off a scrap St. Anthony club.
In one of the consolation games played on Tuesday, 6-foot-5 Devonaire Doutrive – the best unsigned senior college prospect in the west – scored 40 points to help defending L.A. City Section Open champion Birmingham roll past Rancho Dominguez, 93-66.
Tuesday Results
Championship quarterfinals
Narbonne 58, Oak Park 57: L.A. Verbum Dei transfers Jordan Griffen (16 points, including five free throws in the fourth quarter) and Malik Muhammad (10 points and 10 rebounds) were outstanding as the Gauchos held on when Riley Battin’s 3-point attempt was off the mark at the buzzer.
The University of Utah-bound Battin scored 28 points and grabbed nine rebounds while sophomore guard Clark Slajchert chipped in with 14 points for Oak Park.
Westchester 58, Dominguez 56: The Comets were stung early, falling behind by 13 points in the second quarter, before finally prevailing on a couple of free throws by junior Jordan Brinson with 5.4 seconds to go.
Brinson scored a team-high 19 points and also did a reasonably good job of defending one of the best scorers in Southern California, Wayne Arnold.
The Cal State Fullerton-bound Arnold, who scored 38 points in an upset of Windward Monday, scored 22 Tuesday with “only” four of those coming in the fourth quarter.
Senior forward Kaelen Allen, a transfer from AB Miller in Fontana, scored 12 of his 14 points after intermission for Westchester.
Redondo 62, Mayfair 56: The aforementioned LoVett and Christopher (who also had six steals and seemingly as many dunks as part of his effort) alternated with spiffy plays but Redondo also got a strong effort from senior center Quinn Collins (nine points, six rebounds and three assists).
Caleb Christopher, Josh’s senior brother, added 18 points for the Monsoons.
Santa Margarita 66, St. Anthony 56: The Eagles got strong efforts across the board against the tenacious Saints, none more than critical than the one that was turned in by reserve forward Jake Wadkins.
Wadkins scored eight second-half points to help his squad stay just far enough in front of Saint Anthony to move into Friday’s semifinals.
Senior center Jordan Guest (18 points), junior forward Max Agbonkpolo (16) and sophomore Ryan Evans (11) also scored in double figures for the Eagles (who overcame 17 turnovers) while junior swingman Jake Kyman had eight points, 11 rebounds, four assists and three blocked shots.
Friday schedule
Auxiliary Gym
13-16 semifinals: Noon, Rancho Dominguez vs. Lynwood; 1:30 p.m., Millikan vs. Inglewood.
Main Gym
Consolation semifinals: 12:30, Windward vs. Gahr; 2, Birmingham vs. Serra
Fifth-place semifinals: 3:30, Dominguez vs. Oak Park; 5, Mayfair vs. St. Anthony
Championships semifinals: 6:30, Redondo vs. Santa Margarita; 8, Narbonne vs. Westchester.
Leave a Reply