Tournament of Champions : Capo Valley Falls to Westchester

Westchester High School built a big lead in the first quarter and coasted to a 59-46 victory over Capistrano Valley Tuesday in the opening round of the 15th Tournament of Champions in Cal Poly Pomona’s Kellogg Gymnasium.

The Comets used their speed and some uncanny passing by sophomore point guard Sam Crawford to build a 20-10 lead, and Capistrano Valley could never catch up.

Capistrano Valley guard Scott McCullough had an off-night shooting, connecting on only 6 of 22 field goal attempts. He failed to make a shot in the second half until 1:48 remained and by then Westchester led, 52-40.

Forward Todd Kostoff, in his best game of the season thus far, led Capistrano Valley (4-3) with 19 points and 13 rebounds. Only four players scored for the Cougars.

Westchester, ranked No. 4 in The Times’ L.A. City Section poll behind Fairfax, Manual Arts and Crenshaw, was impressive. The Comets started four underclassmen but outclassed Capistrano Valley.

“Their guards were tough,” said Mark Thornton, Capistrano Valley coach. “We had a problem with our offense. If we could have shot 45-50%, we would have been in the ballgame.”

The Cougars shot 29%, making 19 of 64 shots.

Capistrano Valley will play a consolation game against Morningside at 4 p.m. Thursday.

Ocean View and Servite, which won opening-round games Monday, will compete in second-round games tonight. Servite plays Santa Clara at 7 p.m.; the Ocean View-Verbum Dei game starts at 8:30.