SOUTHERN SECTION PLAYOFFS : Los Alamitos Guards Cold, Rolling Hills Wins, 69-66

For three quarters Friday night, Los Alamitos center Dre Lamoureux carried his team. But when it came down to the final shot, he wasn’t on the floor.

That was because Los Alamitos trailed by three points. And, though Lamoureux can do a lot of things, he’s not exactly an outside threat.

Los Alamitos missed that three-point shot and will miss the 3-A semifinals. The Griffins lost to Rolling Hills, 69-66, at Cypress College.

Los Alamitos finished its season 21-7. Bay League champion Rolling Hills (21-6) will play Kennedy in Tuesday’s semifinals.

On a night when one of Orange County’s most effective guard combinations--Brett Pagett and Brian Parkinson--was cold, Lamoureux did what he had to do.

He scored 24 points, including 14 in the second quarter, and had 16 rebounds. But he was held scoreless in the fourth quarter.

“They had two men on me and were trying to move me around,” said Lamoureux, a senior. “And none of our outside shots were falling.”

That they weren’t. The only Griffin who could hit from the outside was senior Doug Davidson, Los Alamitos’ sixth man, who scored 17 points.

Parkinson scored just two points. Point guard Pagett added seven points--just one basket from the outside--and shot just 25% from the floor. Pagett, who averaged 7.8 assists during the season, was held to just two.

Rolling Hills Coach Cliff Warren credited the defense of forward Ron Dinnel for stopping Pagett.

But Rolling Hills did not have impressive ball handling, turning the ball over 14 times. And Rolling Hills did not have great size. But what the Titans did have, and really all they needed, was junior John Hardy.

Hardy scored 32 points. When Los Alamitos threatened to break the game open in the second quarter, when Lamoureux hit six straight shots and the Griffins opened a 35-25 lead, it was Hardy who brought his team back, scoring 11 points in the quarter.

Los Alamitos led, 41-37, at the end of the second quarter, but only 41-39 when the third quarter began.

When Rolling Hills came out of the locker room, Warren was furious to discover that the official book, kept by Los Alamitos, had been taken from courtside during the intermission.

Fuming while the game was delayed several minutes, Warren finally won his case with the referees, and Los Alamitos was penalized two technical fouls for the infraction and Warren announced he was playing the game under protest.

When asked after the victory, if he was still protesting the game, Warren said: “I don’t want to comment on that. I don’t know what happened.”

Los Alamitos Coach Steve Brooks left the court without talking to reporters after the game.

But the controversy only seemed to help Los Alamitos, which increased its lead to seven points. But Hardy once again sparked a comeback and Lamoureux was shut down. Los Alamitos led, 54-51, after the third quarter and held a narrow lead for most of the final period.

But with 1:03 to play, Titan forward Stuart Taller gave Rolling Hills its first lead since the first period, 67-66, on a three-point play. The Griffins failed three times to score. And Titan Steve Clover made two free throws with eight seconds to play, increasing Rolling Hills’ lead. Parkinson’s desperate three-point shot at the buzzer missed.