San Diego High School Basketball : Oceanside’s String Stays Alive, 57-56

Guard Darrell Noble made a 15-foot jump shot with 20 seconds remaining in overtime Tuesday to give Oceanside High School a 57-56 win over Poway in the opening round of the Mt. Carmel Invitational Basketball Tournament.

“It was a cliffhanger. We were lucky to get out of there with a win,” Oceanside Coach Don Montamble said.

Poway (5-3) had taken the lead moments earlier when Harlan Carroll sank both shots on a one-and-one free-throw situation. The overtime period was a microcosm of the game’s four regulation periods, in which momentum swung abruptly from one team to the other.

Oceanside, which has won its last five games after losing its first five, jumped to a 13-6 lead after the first quarter and held a 26-17 lead at the half. But Poway came out strong in the third quarter, outscoring Oceanside, 23-10, to go up by four.

“We came out and pressured more defensively,” Poway Coach Neville Saner said. “We also started speeding up the tempo of the game.”

Just as Poway was speeding up, Oceanside was letting down. Montamble described the third period as “the worst quarter we’ve played this year.”

“We were just real out of sync with our man-to-man defense and weren’t executing properly,” Montamble said. “When we looked up and saw and we were behind by four, that kind of shook us up a little bit.”

Oceanside held Poway close for most of the fourth quarter, but couldn’t cut the Titans’ lead until the game’s final minute. Trailing 52-46, the Pirates put on a full-court press, forcing two Poway turnovers that enabled Oceanside to tie the game.

Junior Seau and Sai Niu, who had both missed the start of the season while playing football, led Oceanside with 24 and 16 points, respectively.

PENINSULA CLASSIC

Chula Vista 77, Southwest 53--Chula Vista (9-4) scored 30 points in the second quarter to take a 44-19 lead at the half and control of the game. Tony Hyner led Chula Vista with 20 points, while teammates Doug Sallee and James McCurty had 14 and 12 points respectively. Adalberto Silva had 19 points to lead Southwest (0-10).

Basic (Nevada) 73, Mar Vista 31--Darrell Green had 18 points to lead Basic, a team from Henderson, Nev., to an easy victory over Mar Vista. Only four players scored for Mar Vista (3-7), with Eric Syverson leading with 14 points. Basic (4-7) will face Chula Vista in the tournament final at 1:30 p.m. today.

SANTANA TOURNAMENT

Vista 75, Santana 59--Mike Simmons scored 18 points and Mark Mata added 17 for Vista (5-4). The Panthers led 33-32 at halftime but opened an eleven-point advantage after three quarters by outscoring the Sultans (6-3), 18-8, in the third quarter. Buddy Webb and Mike Fleming each added 16 points for Vista, which will next meet Lincoln Friday in the round-robin tournament.

ROHR-AZTEC TOURNAMENT

Castle Park 82, Montebello 68--Javier Nunez scored 21 points and tournament MVP Vince Bucca added 14 to lead Castle Park past Montebello for the tournament championship. Castle Park opened a 25-15 after the first quarter en route to the victory.

In other tournament play, Christian defeated Coachella Valley, 53-47, for third place; El Cajon beat Mar Vista, 71-55, for the consolation championship and host Montgomery beat Brawley, 72-50.