Stokes Blocks Rio Mesa Drive in Final Seconds

Edward Stokes of St. Bernard High scored a game-high 28 points in the Vikings’ 67-63 victory over Rio Mesa in a semifinal of the Beverly Hills tournament Friday night, but his biggest play was on defense.

Stokes recorded his sixth block of the game when he swooped to the basket to snuff Jeff Garner’s layup attempt with 20 seconds left and St. Bernard nursing a 64-63 lead. Mark Raveling, son of USC Coach George Raveling, hit 2 free throws with 15 seconds left for a 3-point lead, and Stokes added another free throw with 1 second left.

Garner scored a team-high 21 points for Rio Mesa (3-1), and Eric Thomas added 16. Steve Killgore scored 10 off the bench.

In tonight’s championship game at 8:30, St. Bernard will play Rolling Hills, an 85-80 winner in double overtime over Buena in another semifinal. Rio Mesa plays Buena for third place at 7.

Westlake 59, Crespi 51--Jeff Maurer made 4 free throws in the final 50 seconds to send the Warriors into the consolation final against Royal at 1:30 this afternoon.

Westlake led by 10 with 2 minutes to play and seemed in command until 3-point shots by Pat Brady and Chris McGee and a 3-point play by Kenny Lynch moved Crespi to within 1.

However, Maurer’s free throws and 2 free throws by Chris Coffey enabled Westlake to pull away. Westlake senior forward Kurt Schwan had 19 points and 11 rebounds.

Westlake outscored Crespi, 24-17, in the third quarter behind consecutive 3-point shots by Peter Mladina, who had 15 points. Brady had 23 points, including 5 from 3-point range. McGee had 13 and Lynch added 11.

Royal 81, Redondo 66--Russell Meyers scored 25 points and teammate J. P. Ouellete added 21 to lead Royal in the other consolation semifinal. Trailing by 9 at the end of the third quarter, Redondo went into a full-court trap. But the Highlanders broke the press consistently.