Riverside King holds off Westchester

The Riverside King boys’ basketball team stole the momentum in the first half of its Southern California Regional Division I quarterfinal Tuesday night against host Westchester, then refused to relinquish it down the stretch.

The Comets made a three-point shot in the closing seconds, but fifth-seeded King never had to inbound the ball, allowing the Wolves to hold on for a 77-75 victory.

King (31-2) will play at top-seeded Woodland Hills Taft in Thursday’s semifinal.

The Wolves hosted another City Section semifinalist on Monday night, Los Angeles Fremont, and won, 82-56. They also beat Etiwanda in overtime Saturday night in the Southern Section Division I final at the Honda Center.

King Coach Tim Sweeney said the key to Tuesday’s victory over the fourth-seeded Comets was “just huge execution and being able to stay focused against their pressure.”

The Wolves fell behind, 16-6, on Dwayne Polee’s fast-break dunk with 2:47 remaining in the first quarter, but then the Comets went without a field goal until Polee grabbed an offensive rebound and converted a short jumper with 3:08 left in the half. By then, the Wolves had taken an eight-point lead.

“That second quarter hurt us,” Westchester Coach Ed Azzam said.

King extended it least to 12 at the half and led by nine heading into the fourth quarter, despite much more aggressive play by the Comets.

Eric Wise, who led the Wolves with 20 points, sat out the last five minutes of the third quarter after receiving his third personal foul.

Westchester (29-5) cut the deficit to four points with 2:55 left, but Polee fouled out two possessions later and Wise made both free throws to push the lead to six.

The Wolves made six of eight free throws in the final 41 seconds.

J.J. Campbell, who scored a career-high 29 points off the bench against Fremont, had another big game, scoring 19. He came into the regionals averaging 7.5 points.

“The last two months, he has turned into a Division I basketball player,” Sweeney said.

Azzam was also complimentary of Wise, a 6-foot-5, 235-pound forward, who spent most of the game bringing the ball up the floor against Westchester’s best post defender, Cordell Hadnot.

“We had a tough time guarding him,” Azzam said.

Dominique O’Connor scored 18 points to lead the Comets and Polee had 14, but only eight after the first quarter.

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Dan Arritt

Woodland Hills Taft 85, Oceanside El Camino 62 – With the top-seeded Toreadors leading by three points entering the fourth quarter, All-American point guard Larry Drew Jr. took over, scoring 15 of his 32 points to help the host Toreadors (27-3) advance.

“Larry took over,” Taft Coach Derrick Taylor said.

El Camino (29-4) was effective at getting the ball inside against the Toreadors, with 6-7 junior Luke Evans scoring 22 points and guard Dee Love adding 21.

“They ran really good stuff offensively,” Taylor said. “We had a hard time defending them.”

Aiding the Toreadors in the fourth quarter was Bryce Smith, who made three three-point shots, baskets that helped open the lane for Drew, who also made three three-pointers in the quarter. Drew finished with 10 assists.

Justin Hawkins had 17 points and Terran Carter 14 points for Taft, which will be the home team on Thursday against King, the Southern Section Division I-A champion.

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Eric Sondheimer

Compton Dominguez 97, San Diego 83 – Dominguez Coach Russell Otis summed up the evening with one word: “Intense.”

Interesting word choice, especially since the second-seeded Dons coasted to a 14-point victory over visiting San Diego and will play host to third-seeded Los Angeles Fairfax in a Division I semifinal on Thursday.

The Dons (30-2) built a 16-point lead in the second quarter and led by as many as 25 midway through the fourth.

Jordan Hamilton led Dominguez with 26 points while sitting out much of the second half.

“Jordan-like,” Otis said of Hamilton’s performance. “Not Michael Jordan – no, I wouldn’t say that. But he was Jordan Hamilton.”

Said Hamilton, who also had six rebounds: “I expected more of a game.”

Bryce Cartwright and Myron Green each had 14 points for Dominguez, which has won 19 games in a row.

Patrick McCollom led San Diego (23-5), the San Diego Section Division I champion, with 36 points.

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Anthony Stitt

Los Angeles Fairfax 66, Etiwanda 54 - The defending state champion Lions (27-5) were trailing, 26-24, at halftime, but opened up the third quarter with a 21-7 run to go ahead, 45-33, and take control of their Division I quarterfinal.

Fairfax center Renardo Sidney had 10 of his game-high 21 points in the third quarter. Sidney also had 14 rebounds and four blocked shots. Chris Solomon added 13 points for the host Lions, who will play second-seeded Compton Dominguez in a semifinal Thursday.

Erick Ellis, Bennett Shaw and Tre Brewer each scored 10 points for Etiwanda (31-3), which made only nine of 19 free throws.

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Mike Terry

North Hollywood Campbell Hall 85, Rosamond 22 – UCLA-bound guard Jrue Holiday scored 26 points and became the 16th player in state history to eclipse the 2,600-point mark in the top-seeded Vikings’ dominant victory in their Division IV quarterfinal at Campbell Hall.

Holiday needs 78 points to surpass former Oakwood standout Mitchell Butler’s mark of 2,682 for the most points scored by a San Fernando Valley player.

“We pretty much can score on anybody and we showed it,” said Holiday, who has helped Campbell Hall extend its home unbeaten streak to 54 games. “We only have three games left and we’re going to put it all out on the court every time.”

Campbell Hall (28-5) will play fourth-seeded Bakersfield Garces (23-8), the Central Section Division IV champion, in the semifinals at 8 p.m. Thursday at Harvard-Westlake High.

This one was a blowout from the start. Campbell Hall jumped to a 21-1 lead in the first quarter and Holiday scored 11 points in a little over three minutes. From there, the Vikings cruised to a 59-14 halftime lead and, for the 14th time in the last 17 games, forced a running clock in the fourth quarter.

An estimated 150 fans were turned away at the door since the 700-person capacity gym was at standing-room only.

Dallas Rutherford finished with 16 points and teammates James Johnson and Bryce Brady each had 13 for the Vikings, who shot 59% from the floor. Christian Holden scored a team-high six points for Rosamond (26-6), the Southern Section Division V-A semifinalist.

“Campbell Hall is just amazing,” Rosamond Coach Tim Atkerson said. “We tried everything we could to shut down Holiday, but he just was unstoppable.”

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Austin Knoblauch