LYNWOOD – The host Lynwood High Knights knocked off the Warren Bears, 68-62, in a Friday night showdown for a piece of first place in the San Gabriel Valley.
And Coach Jason Crowe’s Knights were able to avenge a Jan. 10 loss to Warren (70-63) although the Bears held Lynwood’s best players to seven points below the SGVL scoring average he took into Friday’s game.
Of course, 6-foot-9, 250-pound (give or take) junior Carl Lewis took a 45.0 ppg average over the team’s first five league games prior to the rematch with the Bears.
So, “holding” Lewis to “just” 38 points proved, perhaps, only a moral victory at best as Warren dropped to 4-2 with its second consecutive SGVL loss (they fell at co-leader Dominguez Wednesday, 63-59) while the Knights upped their league mark to 5-1 and overall record to 10-12 in Crowe’s first season with the program
Despite missing three-plus minutes in the first half because of fouls issues, Lewis scored 28 points and grabbed 14 rebounds as the Knights took a 21-point advantage (44-23) into intermission.
But ball-handling and passing carelessness (16 second-turnovers in the second half, split between the third and four quarters) on Lynwood’s behalf and a balanced scoring attack by the Bears started taking big bites out of the Knights’ once-hefty lead.
Lewis (who hit 17 of 30 shots from the field, including a 3, and grabbed 19 rebounds) hit two free throws to put his team up, 60-51, with 5:19 remaining.
Tre’mond Johnson hit a 3 from the right corner to get the Bears (13-8 overall) to within six points with 4:55 to go before Lewis lowered his shoulder and ran over Cerroy Chennault and was his with a charge for his fourth personal foul and sixth turnover.
There was a seventh (and final) turnover by Lewis but the fifth and disqualifying foul didn’t materialize – which is why the Knight are still in possession of a share of the league lead.
Crowe pulled Lewis from the game on the fourth foul but put him back onto the floor with 3:41 remaining.
The teams exchanged turnovers before Lewis passed from the low post to Tyler Parks, whose short jumper increased the Knight’s lead to eight points (at 64-56).
Lewis would have likely scored much closer to his SGVL average if he’d been more accurate from the free-throw line, where he was just three of eight while missing the front end of three 1-and-1 opportunities.
Senior guard Tony Hilt was the only other Knight to score in double figures (with 15 points).
Chennault, a slick left hander, hit three 3s while finishing with 19 points as one of three Bears to score in double figures.
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