SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : Manual Arts Finds Its Success Is Not a Secret

It’s fast becoming obvious that Coach Reggie Morris and the Manual Arts High School basketball team can’t keep a secret.

The Toilers from Los Angeles, described by Morris last week as the best-kept secret in town, have already proven it to the majority of the City, losing only to Crenshaw (twice) and Reseda of Cleveland en route to a second-place finish in the 4-A.

Tuesday night, word spread to the San Gabriel Valley and one of the best teams in the Southern Section in the form of a 94-91 victory over Bishop Amat of La Puente in the first round of the Southern California Regional Division I playoffs at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

An even larger proving ground awaits: Simi Valley, probably the best team in the Southern Section. The game will be played Thursday at a site to be determined. The second-seeded Pioneers, the 4-A champions, defeated Santee Santana of the San Diego Section, 92-67, in that first-round matchup.

Manual Arts (24-3) took the lead when Wayne Williams hit a three-point shot from the right side with 4:30 to play. That made it 80-78, and the Toilers, despite a cushion of two points most of the stretch and one point at the end, held on for the win.

Manual Arts was leading, 88-86, with 1:14 to play when Williams stole an inbounds pass from Stephon Pace. Williams got the ball to Charlo Davis, who was fouled and missed both free throws, only to have teammate Kent Bennett rebound and get two free throws. Bennett made both to give the Toilers a 90-86 lead.

Bishop Amat (27-4, with back-to-back losses to end the season) closed to 90-88 and then 92-91 on a three-point play by Geoff Lear. But Manual Arts’ Chris Small, who scored a team-high 25 points after scoring 30 in the loss to Crenshaw in the City final last Friday, was fouled after the Toilers put the ball in play and made both free throws for the final margin.

“I think they were hungrier than us at the start,” Morris said. “They were ready. We still had the blahs because of Friday. They really came out and showed us some speed. We ended up having to go to a zone to slow them down.”

Lear scored a game-high 32 points for Bishop Amat, hitting 14 of 21 free throws. Four other Lancers scored in double figures, but that still wasn’t enough to beat a Manual Arts team that had two players with more than 20--Small and Develle Walker.

“I hope everyone remembers what we accomplished all season and not what happened just the last two games,” Bishop Amat Coach Alex Acosta said.