Fullerton Tournament : Indians Rally to Win : Fullerton Beats Buena Park for the Title

In an early matchup of two of the Freeway League’s best teams Friday night, Fullerton High School defeated Buena Park, 71-64, in the championship game of the Fullerton Tournament.

The Indians are 4-3, the Coyotes are 5-3.

“We asked our kids to do three things tonight,” Fullerton Coach Randy Forgette said. “Out-hustle, outsmart and outplay our opponent . . . and we accomplished all three.”

Fullerton trailed, 56-49, with seven minutes left before scoring 10 straight points in a two-minute span behind the play of reserve guard David Sawyer. Sawyer scored six of his 12 points in the span as the Indians took the lead for good, 59-56.

The Coyotes’ best player, forward Gary Hunter, who had scored 32 points in two previous tournament games, was held to six. Hunter sat out much of the second half with three fouls.

Center Al Lewis had 18 points for the Indians, and guard Greg Wilber, the tournament’s most valuable player, added 17.

After a close first half Fullerton led, 34-33.

But in the second half, Buena Park’s inside game was stopped by the Indians’ collapsing defense.

“We didn’t play hard tonight--and Fullerton executed perfectly,” Buena Park Coach Ken Bell said.

The teams will meet twice in Freeway League play, which begins the first week of January.

In other Fullerton Tournament games:

Cerritos 70, Valencia 62--The Dons (3-6) outscored the Tigers, 22-13, in the second quarter and went on to win the third-place game.

Eugene Humphrey scored 18 points for Cerritos and teammate Tim Keck added 15.

Jeff Franck scored 23 points and Darren Robinson 18 for Valencia.

La Serna 64, Sonora 58--Tyler Austin scored 26 points, James Hammond 16 and Dave Hazel 14 for the Lancers in the consolation championship game.

Geoff Crow scored 16, Grayle Humphrey 12 and Kris Kramer 10 for the Raiders.