PREP BASKETBALL : Bishop Montgomery Will Challenge Torrance for Christmas Classic Trophy

Looking at Bishop Montgomery’s opponents in Angelus League play, one would say the Knights’ toughest games are.

With that in mind, they have made the most of their pre-league tournament schedule.

Last month Bishop Montgomery finished runner-up in the El Segundo tournament and two weeks ago took home the consolation prize of the Pacific Shores tourney. And with their 69-61 victory over Narbonne Wednesday night at Torrance High, the Knights earned another shot at a championship trophy, this time in the 21st annual Torrance Christmas Classic. Bishop Montgomery, now 9-2, faces Torrance Friday night at 7:30 in the host school’s gymnasium.

“In the last four years we’ve gone 1-39 in league games, so it’s important for these kids to learn what it takes to win,” said Coach Tony Carter, Bishop Montgomery’s fifth head coach in four years.

“We’ve tried to instill a winning attitude in our players and they’ve come a long way in a short time. I’m real pleased with our effort up to this point.”

The Knights took command of the contest in the second quarter when they outscored Narbonne, 26-12, to pull ahead, 40-28, at halftime. The Gauchos cut the lead to six with a spurt early in the third period, but Michael Wright’s free throw and Darrell Daniels’ 3-pointer put Bishop Montgomery back up by 10 and Narbonne could not get closer than 9 points thereafter.

“We had a couple of nice little runs, but the mistakes just killed us,” said Narbonne Coach Bob Hoppas, whose team fell to 2-7. “We played well in spurts, but overall we just didn’t execute.”

The Knights had four players in double figures with Daniels leading the way with 19. Matt Kuttrell scored 15, Jesus Perez 14 and Shelton Hill 10.

Richard Guilfore paced Narbonne with 14 and Derrick Dukes had 12.

Bishop Montgomery jumped out to a 9-2 first-quarter lead and held Narbonne scoreless for almost four minutes in the process. But a 9-0 run in the last three minutes of the period left the Gauchos ahead, 16-14, at the end of the quarter. It was Narbonne’s only lead of the game.

Torrance 61, West Torrance 59 (overtime)--Rick Robison hit two free throws with five seconds left in overtime to lift the Tartars in the other championship semifinals.

Robison led all scorers with 22 while teammate Art Terrill had 16 and Toby Wollard 13.

Dock Kim led West with 14.

West Torrance tied the game with one second left in regulation when Sean McCray scored on an offensive rebound. Torrance had taken a lead on Robison’s 3-pointer with 35 seconds left.

El Segundo 70, Mira Costa 62--El Segundo (3-6) used a one-two scoring punch from Shawn Foster (23 points) and Scott Panfil (22 points) for a victory in the consolation semifinals of the Torrance tournament. The Eagles face North Torrance on Friday at 4:30 p.m. at Torrance High.

Foster scored 40 points for El Segundo the night before in a losing cause against West Torrance,

Mira Costa (1-4) was paced by Ryan Campbell who scored 28 points, including five 3-point shots. But Campbell scored just 10 of his total points in the second half.

Mira Costa pulled to within 4 points with a little more than two minutes remaining against the Eagles, but El Segundo cemented the win with clutch free-throw shooting down the stretch.

North Torrance 57, South Torrance 50--North fought back from a one-point halftime deficit and took control with a 25-12 third quarter to record its first victory of the season in the consolation semifinals of the Torrance tournament.

Brian Jurado paced North (1-4) with 20 points while John Tymick and Mike Huang contributed 11 each.

South (1-4) was led by center Lance Holmes’ game-high 23 points.