El Dorado Boys’ Basketball Tournament : With Hopkins Ailing, Sunny Hills Is Beaten

Sunny Hills High School was missing one key ingredient from its game plan Friday night--a healthy Marcus Hopkins.

Hopkins, a forward, was slowed by the flu and Long Beach Jordan defeated Sunny Hills, 89-73, in a semifinal game of the El Dorado tournament at El Dorado.

Long Beach Jordan (4-2) will meet El Dorado for the championship tonight at 8. El Dorado (6-1) beat Canyon, 80-62, in the other semifinal Thursday. Sunny Hills plays Canyon tonight at 5 in the third-place game.

The Lancers (4-2) opened a 24-17 first quarter lead, then watched Long Beach Jordan fight back.

The Panthers outscored Sunny Hills, 22-13, in the second period using a full-court pressure defense and the inside scoring of forward David Mitchell, the game’s leading scorer with 38 points. Hopkins went to the bench with foul trouble early in the second quarter, and Jordan took advantage of the opportunity.

The Panthers outrebounded Sunny Hills, 17-8, in the second half while coasting to the easy victory. Kasey Brown’s slam dunk with 2:40 remaining gave the Panthers a 82-65 lead.

Senior guard Jeff White led Sunny Hills with 20 points, and Jon Beuerlein added 13 and 7 assists. Chuck Morris scored 16 for Jordan with 6 assists.