Boys Basketball Roundup : Los Alamitos (30 Turnovers) Falls to Corona del Mar Pressure

Corona del Mar High School’s pressing, man-to-man defense helped force 30 Los Alamitos turnovers Tuesday as the Sea Kings rolled to a 67-57 win in the first round of the 16th Laguna Beach tournament.

The Sea Kings used superior quickness against the Griffins, who are considered one of the top teams in Orange County. The final margin of victory might have been larger, but the Sea Kings missed the front end of seven one-and-one free-throw opportunities in the second half.

Corona del Mar opened a nine-point lead with 47 seconds remaining in the third quarter after Sean Turner stole a pass and scored on a layup. But Los Alamitos managed to stay close because Corona del Mar missed eight free throws in the last quarter.

Jeff Fryer led the Sea King attack with 19 points, but he made only 2 of 11 field-goal attempts in the second half. Doug Green added 18 points, despite missing the front end of five one-and-one attempts.

“We’re not smooth in the early season, but I think we’re going to be good,” said Jack Errion, Corona del Mar coach. “To be truthful, we don’t have anybody coming back except Fryer.

“Overall, this is one of the quicker teams I’ve had at Corona del Mar. We tried a little zone press and it seemed to work. I think we’ll be able to use it even more as the season progresses.”

Although center Tim Christiansen and Turner failed to score in double figures, both were impressive. Turner is the team’s best defensive player, and Christiansen showed good rebounding potential before fouling out in the fourth quarter.

“He (Turner) can guard the best guys around,” Errion said.

He did a good job guarding Los Alamitos’ J.T. Snow, limiting the senior to 11 points, only four points in the second half. Moe Warner led the Griffins with 15 points but was on the bench for the final five minutes because of some defensive lapses.

“I’m disappointed,” said Steve Brooks, Los Alamitos coach. “How can you be happy with 30 turnovers? Corona del Mar is a very, very good team, and we made some careless mistakes.”

El Camino 74, Chadwick 68--Randy Hale led the Wildcats with 17 points in a first-round victory over the Dolphins. Chadwick’s James Johnson led all scorers with 20 points. El Camino meets Corona del Mar Thursday in the winners’ bracket and Chadwick meets Los Alamitos today in the losers’ bracket.

Long Beach Jordan 52, Dana Hills 42--The Panthers led, 22-18, at halftime and then outscored the Dolphins, 30-24, for the win. Troy Stephens led the Panthers with 17 points. The Dolphins’ Dave Lyon led all scorers with 22 points. Jordan meets Estancia Thursday night. Dana Hills meets Warren High of Downey tonight.

Estancia 55, Warren 33--Furny Trejo scored 18 points and Kyle Mooney 16 to lead the Eagles to the win. The Eagles outscored the Bears, 21-6, in the fourth quarter.

In the Valencia Tournament:

Last season, freshman forward Kevin Rembert’s biggest contribution to Mater Dei was the crowd-pleasing dunks he performed during warmups.

Tuesday night, Rembert made a big contribution in the fourth quarter of the Monarchs’ 59-39 victory over Lynwood in the opening round of the 23rd Valencia Tournament in Placentia.

Rembert, a 6-foot 4-inch sophomore, came off the bench to score nine points in the final period to break a close game and give the Monarchs their 30th consecutive victory spanning the last two seasons.

Mater Dei was clinging to a three-point lead with 7:21 left when Rembert entered. The Monarchs went on a 13-2 scoring binge and Rembert had some key plays in the Monarchs’ season opener.

He stole a pass and scored on a layup with 3:31 left to push Mater Dei ahead, 42-31, and then ended any hopes of a Lynwood upset by rebounding a missed layup by teammate Stuart Thomas and turning the errant shot into a three-point play with 2:58 left for a 45-31 lead.

Mater Dei, which had problems dealing with Lynwood’s 2-2-1 zone press most of the game, outscored Lynwood, 27-12, in the last quarter to turn the game into a rout.

“People are going to see the score and think the game was a blowout,” said Gary McKnight, Mater Dei coach. “It was a pretty close game. There are some rough spots in our play that we need to work on.”

For openers, Thomas, a Stanford-bound senior, made only 6 of 18 shots and most of those were within 10 feet of the basket. He missed eight layups with six of those getting blocked.

“I’ve never seen Stu that flat,” McKnight said. “I don’t know what the problem was. I thought Rembert gave us a real spark and got us going.”

LeRon Ellis, the newest member of the Monarchs, led all scorers with 16 points. He started slowly, but came on strong in the fourth quarter with eight points and displayed a nice shooting touch.

Lynwood, which returned two starters and its sixth man off a 26-2 team last year, gave the Monarchs problems with its quickness. The Knights led only once, 4-3, in the early stages and fell behind by 14 points just before halftime.

But the Knights limited Mater Dei to only five points in the third quarter and stayed close until Rembert got the Monarchs rolling. Mater Dei will meet Esperanza in the semifinals Thursday night. Esperanza advanced with a 70-66 upset win over El Modena.

In the Garden Grove Tournament:

Garden Grove 60, Loara 54--Mark Kiefer had 19 points and Jeff Kanagae added 18 to lead the Argonauts to a first-round victory. The Argonauts meet Laguna Hills today in a championship round semifinal game. Loara moves to the consolation championship.

Fullerton 65, Pacifica 47--Ralph Tallant had 25 points and Chris Zerga added 13 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Indians to the first-round victory. Fullerton meets El Dorado Thursday in the winner’s bracket and Pacifica meets Chino in the consolation bracket.

In the Cerritos-Gahr Tournament at Gahr:

University 75, Cypress 55--The Trojans had five players in double-figures scoring and limited the Centurions to a two-point second quarter to highlight their first-round victory. Steve Stolzoff led the Trojans with 16 points.

Gahr 69, Western 56--Eric Powers scored a game-high 19 points and grabbed 15 rebounds, and Mark Tieteman added 17 points and 10 rebounds to help the Gladiators defeat the Pioneers. Harry Butler added 12 points and Ike Withers had 11 for Gahr, which will play University in the second round Thursday. Troy Joseph and Chuck Towell each scored 14 points for Western.

In nonleague action:

Fountain Valley 60, El Toro 50--Scott Wessler scored 19 points to lead the Barons to a season-opening victory over the Chargers at El Toro. Fountain Valley is at Compton Friday. El Toro plays host to Temple City Thursday.