IRVINE WORLD NEWS TOURNAMENT : Marina Shot Down in Second Half

San Bernardino High School spent most of the first half Friday night trying to find a way to shoot over Cherokee Parks, Marina’s 6-foot-11 center. The Cardinals didn’t have much luck.

But they found all kinds of routes around and over Parks in the second half for a 58-56 victory against Marina in the championship semifinals of the Irvine World News basketball tournament at Irvine High School.

The Cardinals (7-0) will meet Compton in the final at 7:30 tonight at Christ College Irvine.

Marina (5-3) appeared destined for the final as Parks swatted away four San Bernardino shots in the first half.

“We were intimidated by Parks in the first half,” San Bernardino Coach Scott Kay said. “At halftime I told them to try to go by him instead of going over him.”

Guard Quan Ha found the two easiest ways to get by Parks, who finished with 18 points, 13 rebounds and six blocked shots.

Ha made three three-pointers and scored all of his 12 points in the second half, including two free throws with 13 seconds remaining that gave the Cardinals a 58-54 lead.

“I have to give Quan a lot of credit,” Kay said. “He’s our best free-throw shooter (80%) but he doesn’t shoot them very often because he doesn’t penetrate and get fouled much.”

Marina Coach Steve Popovich said he was impressed by Ha’s outside shooting.

“Ha’s three-pointers really loosened things up for them,” Popovich said. “They hit a lot of tough shots in the second half.

“They turned it up in the second half. It just came down to one last bucket.”

One the Vikings couldn’t get.

San Bernardino was leading, 54-52, when the Cardinals’ Etdrick Bohannon missed a short jumper. After the ball was tipped twice, Bohannon grabbed it and laid it in for to give the Cardinals a 56-52 lead with 50 seconds left.

“That was the key to the game right there,” Popovich said.

Popovich said another factor in the second half was Cardinal center Ray Owes, a 6-7 junior. He scored eight of his game-high 21 points in the third quarter as the Cardinals turned a five-point halftime deficit into a two-point lead.

“Ray was a lot more active in the second half,” Kay said. “He played well inside and out. And our defense was much better in the second half, too.”

It was Parks’ presence on defense that kept the Vikings in front early. Besides his four blocks, he pulled down 10 rebounds and scored 11 points as Marina grabbed a 28-23 halftime lead.

“(Marina) really took it to us in the first half,” Kay said. “It was their tempo and they had control of the game.”

But the Cardinals began feeding the ball to Ha early in the third quarter. He hit two three pointers and forced Marina to extend it’s defense.

“We’re really not known for our three-point shooting,” Kay said. “But they were packing it in on Ray and Quan was wide open.”