High School Basketball : Royal Caught Looking in 60-43 Loss
With a chance to better last year’s fifth-place performance, the Royal Highlanders entered their Simi Valley tournament game Saturday evening against Ventura with their eyes on the third-place trophy.
Unfortunately for the Highlanders, they took their eyes off the ball. And Ventura, with 4 players scoring in double figures, beat Royal, 60-43.
Ventura had stumbled into the third-place game by virtue of a 74-47 loss on Friday to eventual tournament champion Santa Clara, which defeated Dos Pueblos on Saturday, 62-37.
“I think they out-crummied us,” Ventura Coach Roy Gilmore said of Royal. “We got blown out yesterday. Today wasn’t a pretty win, but we’ll take it.”
Harvey Jones scored 6 of his team-high 15 points in the third quarter. Russell Myers of Royal led all scorers with 21 points.
In the consolation final, Simi Valley knocked off Oxnard, 79-66.
Michael Wawryk scored 26 points for Simi Valley, which, for the first time in the tournament’s 4-year history, did not win the championship.
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