Tournament of Champions : Long Beach Poly Keeps Banning Winless, 53-48

A season of frustration, even if it is only five games old, continued Thursday as Banning High School’s basketball team dropped a 53-48 decision to Long Beach Poly in the consolation quarterfinals of the Tournament of Champions at Cal Poly Pomona.

The loss not only knocked the Pilots out of the tournament but also gave last season’s City 4-A semifinalists an 0-5 start for 1985-86. Blame it on youth and an unenviable schedule.

Coach Don Nichols has 10 seniors and three juniors on the roster, but only three are returning lettermen off the team that finished 18-7. The Pilots have size, though, with 6-8 Marcus Slater and 6-7 David Lee on the front line.

But facing the teams Banning has played so far is also a tall order. Crenshaw is No. 1 in the City and the state, and Huntington Beach Ocean View was No. 1 in the Southern Section before losing Wednesday. Santa Ana Mater Dei is second, and Long Beach Poly is seventh.

The Pilots have played them all--and lost.

“But after the last two games (against Mater Dei and Poly), I’m very optimistic,” Nichols said. “We’ve shown that we can play with some of the best teams around. If we’re this close now, there’s no telling how good we can be at the end with improvement.”

Thursday, they were in the game at the end because of a good second-half defense. Long Beach Poly (5-2) led at halftime, 34-25, but scored only 19 points in the final two quarters on 23% shooting from the field.

Victor Ward’s jumper tied the game for Banning, 44-44, with 1:38 to play. But Poly, which got 13 points from Keith Crawford, 12 points from Michael Herring and 10 rebounds from Osei Appiah, ran off a 7-2 streak to pull ahead for good.

Marshall Lineberger led Banning with 17 points.

Fairfax 47, Compton Dominguez 39--The Lions (6-0) advanced to the championship semifinals behind Chris Mills’ 14 points, which gives the 6-6 sophomore 27 in the first two games of the tournament. Teammate Sean Higgins, who scored 24 points in the first-round victory, made only 4 of 13 shots from the field and finished with eight points.

Gary Williams had 12 points to lead Morningside, which committed 30 turnovers in dropping to 4-3.

Mater Dei 60, Inglewood 44--The Monarchs (7-0) held an eight-point lead at halftime and went on to a victory that put them in a championship semifinal game against Fairfax tonight at 7:30. LeRon Ellis, a 6-10 junior transfer, led the way with 19 points, while Stuart Thomas added 17 points and 11 rebounds.

Stacy Anderson and James Bowens had 10 each for Inglewood (3-4).

Long Beach St. Anthony 63, Inglewood Morningside 55--Jaime Cardriche had 21 points and 18 rebounds to lead the Saints (4-3) into today’s consolation semifinal against Long Beach Poly. Mark Hammock scored 19 points for Morningside (3-5), which was eliminated.