Gardena Tips St. Bernard in 1st Round of L.A. Games

The mighty sometimes fall hard, which came as no surprise to St. Bernard High School Coach Jim McClune when his boys’ basketball team was beaten, 64-59, in the opening round of the L.A. Games on Saturday morning at El Camino College.

Applying the knockout punch was Gardena High School, a well-practiced, experienced bunch that showed little regard for St. Bernard’s eighth-seeded status.

Gardena jumped out to a 10-point first-half lead, let St. Bernard tie it up, then sealed the contest with clutch free-throw shooting in the game’s waning seconds.

Most observers in the packed El Camino gym were surprised at the outcome, but not McClune.

“They’ve played a lot of games already, which gives them a big advantage over us,” said the St. Bernard coach. “Plus, they’re a good team.”

Gardena, a City Section team that has 12 summer games under its belt already, threatened to blow the game open early as the Mohicans surged to a 30-20 half-time lead. They maintained the advantage until St. Bernard tied the game, 57-57, on Juno Armstrong’s steal with less than a minute to play.

The Mohicans hit 5 of 6 from the line in the last 29 seconds and held on for the victory.

“I don’t think we woke up until the second half,” McClune said. “It looked like we were in a coma for the first 20 minutes, and Gardena just seemed to play harder than we did in the first half.”

Bill Hughes, now in his second season coaching at Gardena, welcomes back all five of his starters and has played them considerably throughout the summer league season.

“We’ve had 12 games already, my team has played together before and all the starters are back, so there is some continuity,” he said. “We are a good team, but I was a little surprised that we had so much trouble holding on at the end.”

Armstrong keyed the St. Bernard comeback with 18 second-half points but picked up his fifth foul going for an offensive rebound with his team trailing, 59-57. Gardena’s Darryl McMillan, who led the team with 16 points, calmly sank two free throws to give the Mohicans a four-point lead with 12 seconds left on the clock.

“He (McMillan) is tough on the boards,” Hughes said. “Even though he’s a guard, he was our second-leading rebounder last year. And it was nice to see him hit some free throws because that has been one of our weak spots.”

Armstrong scored the first two baskets of the second half to cut the lead to six points, but Gardena answered the challenge and increased its lead to 52-42 on Chris Thompson’s jumper with five minutes left in the game.

Armstrong scored eight points in the next three minutes, but the Mohicans still held a 57-50 lead with 1:29 remaining. However, St. Bernard scored the next seven points to tie the game.

McMillan sank two free throws with 29 seconds left to put Gardena up, 59-57, then was fouled by Armstrong going for the ball after Ed Stokes’ miss.

Thompson, who hit 3 of 4 free throws in the final seconds, had 13 points, and teammate Kevin Sanders had 15.

Armstrong led St. Bernard with 20 points, Terrell Steeh had eight and Stokes was held to six points.

Elsewhere in boys’ basketball, Banning defeated Arroyo, 59-44; Sierra Vista beat San Pedro, 69-41; Carson downed Los Amigos, 65-21; Palos Verdes, the 10th seed, squeaked past Bishop Diego, 42-40; Redondo beat Huntington Park, 41-34; Crescenta Valley downed Hawthorne, 51-43; Morningside defeated San Fernando, 56-44; Fremont beat West Torrance, 56-39; Inglewood beat Cantwell, 61-51; No. 4 seed Westchester romped past Burroughs 64-48; Long Beach Jordan beat Leuzinger, 44-36 and Saddleback defeated North Torrance, 52-30.

In girls’ basketball, defending CIF 4A champion Morningside had an easy time with Marymount, 52-17; but 3A champ Palos Verdes fell to Long Beach Poly, 35-25. Banning beat Western, 38-27; Leuzinger defeated Santa Barbara, 41-33; Narbonne forfeited to La Quinta and South forfeited its game to Ventura; Inglewood barely got by San Dimas, 46-45; Carson blasted Colton, 36-12; and St. Mary’s Academy beat Torrance, 23-15.

St. Bernard beat Westchester, 3-2, in baseball, while Serra and Mary Star advanced by virtue of forfeits.

Leuzinger will meet Culver City in the girls’ softball semifinals by virtue of its 11-7 victory over Poly High.

In football, Rolling Hills beat Loyola, 6-0, and will meet Carson today at West High and Morningside beat Marshall, 27-6. Palos Verdes defeated Culver City 51-12, earning the right to face Banning in Round Two; while Narbonne fell to University, 19-7. San Pedro meets Muir in another Round Two game today.

In boys’ soccer, Hawthorne beat Riverside Poly, 1-0; Inglewood defeated Bell Gardens, 3-2; and Muir beat San Pedro, 2-1.

In girls’ soccer, Mira Costa and Hawthorne advanced but West Torrance dropped a 2-1 decision to Newbury Park.

Mira Costa beat Palos Verdes, 12-6, in water polo, while Redondo got past Sunny Hills, 7-6. Edison eliminated Miraleste, 13-4, while Chadwick lost, 8-7, to Sonora.