Downey Retains Its Title

Jack Fingle said he expected his Downey High Vikings to win the Bell-Jeff tournament championship game against Bell-Jeff on Tuesday night. He also expected a scrappy game from the smaller Guards. What the coach got was a battle that took two overtimes to decide.

In the end, defending tournament champion Downey prevailed when center Trent Pollard hit the front end of a one-and-one free-throw situation with four seconds remaining to give the Vikings a 66-65 double-overtime win.

Bell-Jeff had a chance to win in both overtime periods. With the score tied, 65-65, with seven seconds remaining in the second overtime, Bell-Jeff had the ball but Pollard picked off the inbounds pass and was fouled to set up the winning free throw. With the score tied, 60-60, in the first overtime, Bell-Jeff played for the last shot with 18 seconds to go, but Chris Dyer could not get the shot off before the buzzer sounded.

Downey (7-4) was led by Pollard, who scored 20 points and converted 3 of 4 free throws in the second overtime. Teammate Guillermo Cabrera scored a team-high 23 points.

Guard Nick Sanderson, who scored 31 points for Bell-Jeff (4-4), forced the first overtime when he stripped Downey’s Steve Nunez of the ball under the Bell-Jeff basket and then tied the score, 55-55, with 42 seconds left in regulation.

Bell-Jeff had one more opportunity to win when Dyer stole the ball and called time out with 32 seconds left.

After the timeout, Bell-Jeff worked the ball around to Sanderson, whose 15-foot jump shot from the left side of the key went in and came out.

Henry Polee added 18 points for Bell-Jeff and Matt Corse had 10 points and 11 rebounds.

North Hollywood 72, Baldwin Park 57--Forward Dominic Nappi erupted for 32 points to lead North Hollywood in the game for third place. North Hollywood (7-3) outscored Baldwin Park by 12 points in the second quarter and 15 in the third.

Alan Breslauer scored nine of his 14 points in the second quarter. The Huskies struck for 29 points in the third quarter, Nappi scoring 14. Nappi converted 10 of 11 free throws.

Baldwin Park (1-5) was led by Crispin Alapag’s 15 points.

Oak Park 69, Paraclete 61--Oak Park fought off a full-court press in the fourth quarter to win the consolation championship. Jason Stein converted 4 of 4 free throws in the fourth quarter for Oak Park (5-6). Oak Park was led by center Richard Chavez’s game-high 25 points and forward Scott Ziegler’s 21. Jeff Zelenski scored 15 points and Bryan Lovelace added 14 for Paraclete (6-4).

South Pasadena 56, Maranatha 45--Tom Satrageni led South Pasadena (4-6) with 21 points in the game for seventh place. Mike Engel scored 18 points for Maranatha (1-9).