High School Basketball : Williams Leads Kennedy to Palisades Final

Kennedy rolled to a 90-71 victory over Culver City in the semifinals of the Palisades tournament on Tuesday behind 28 points from Clarence Williams, 15 from Leon Ware and some timely free-throw shooting down the stretch.

Kennedy (8-0), the defending tournament champion, made 13 of 15 free-throw attempts in the fourth quarter and 16 of 19 in the game.

Ware also had a game-high 17 rebounds. Eugene Miller added 11 points and Uba Satterfield had 10 points for Kennedy, which plays the winner of the Morningside-Palisades semifinal in tonight’s championship.

Steve Jeter scored 21 points for Culver City.

University 74, Taft 66--Raymond Pickett scored 21 points and Miko Garcia added 18 points as University (8-2) upset the Toreadors in a championship semifinal of the Eagle Rock tournament.

Tony Moten scored 27 points and had 11 rebounds for Taft (8-2). Quincy Watts added 22 points. Taft will play Locke in the third-place game today.

Hamilton 65, El Camino Real 64 (OT)--Jason Steele of El Camino Real missed the front end of a one-and-one opportunity with one second remaining in a consolation quarterfinal game of the Palisades tournament.

Troy Cherry made two free throws with eight seconds remaining in overtime to give Hamilton a 65-64 lead.

Steele, who scored five points, made only one of four free-throw attempts.

“He’s about a 50% shooter from the line,” El Camino Real assistant Jeff Davis said. “He just picked a bad time to miss one.”

Brent Lofton, a 6-4 forward, had game-high totals of 36 points and 15 rebounds for El Camino Real (3-6). He made 15 of 21 shots and 6 of 7 free throws.

Stephen Green led Hamilton (2-7) with 24 points and 10 rebounds.

Westlake 67, Newbury Park 63--Jeff Berman of Newbury Park scored 22 points and made five three-point shots in the consolation semifinal of the Ventura tournament.

Newbury Park trailed, 66-63, with eight seconds left when Berman’s three-point attempt went in and out. Bob Grandpre of Westlake grabbed the rebound, was fouled, and made one of two free-throw attempts to complete the scoring.

Grandpre scored 16 points for Westlake (6-5), which plays Camarillo for the consolation championship today.

Camarillo 72, Nordhoff 59--Sean Young scored a game-high 21 points and Chris Sorich added 19 points for Camarillo (5-4) in a consolation semifinal of the Ventura tournament.

Compiled by Heather Hafner, John Ortega and Sean Waters.