REACHING THE TOP : Fairfax, Washington Win Basketball Titles as L.A. Games End

There certainly were taller teams than the Fairfax High School boy’s basketball team. There were even stronger teams, faster teams and flashier teams.

But over the course of a 128-team tournament at the L.A. Games, no team was better.

Fairfax defeated Dorsey, 46-45, in Sunday’s final at El Camino College behind 11 points by Ryan Hickman, who was named the tournament’s most valuable player.

The Lions defeated two-time defending champion Cleveland on Saturday to advance to Sunday morning’s semifinals against Fremont, which was playing with all its starters from the L.A. City 3-A championship team.

Fairfax held Fremont to 11 points in the first 31 minutes of the 40-minute game, and won, 34-22.

Fairfax relied on a stifling man-to-man defense and precision passing to win the championship of the L.A. Games, a 12-sport festival for 10,000 Southern California high school athletes that concluded Sunday.

“I think we could show flashiness, but we like a controlled flashiness,” Fairfax Coach Harvey Kitani said. “Our type of play demands a lot of focus and concentration. It’s like the kid in the classroom who is going to Harvard and can never daydream.”

In the girls’ competition, Washington won four of its six games by more than 20 points, and Sunday defeated much-taller Morningside for the championship, 70-56.

In a game that was called with 41 seconds to play because of a bench-clearing fight, Washington finally defeated Morningside, the state champion which had defeated the Generals twice last season.

Despite losing their tallest player, 5-foot-11 Angelina Adams, because of a knee injury, Washington dominated the Monarchs with 6-5 Lisa Leslie, 6-3 Janet Davis and 6-1 Rachel Gardner.

“They were like enormous,” said Washington’s Charisse Sampson, who scored 19 points and was named tournament MVP. “But I was just telling myself to go for it, to take charge. This was revenge time.”

The Generals also were led by Remitha Houston and Detra Lockhart, who Washington Coach Phil Chase calls the country’s best high school backcourt tandem.

Houston scored a game-high 21 points and Lockhart had 23 assists.

Tempers flared with two minutes left when Leslie threw an elbow at the 5-10 Sampson, and was called for a foul. She then threw the ball at a referee, who caught it and called a technical.

The game was called with less than a minute to play after two players got into a fight on the court, prompting both benches to clear.