GLENDALE COLLEGE TOURNAMENT : Glendale Fells Tall Cypress in Final, 68-55

Call them the Ivory Towers, the Twin Towers, or whatever you want.

Glendale College toppled them like so much brick and mortar.

Glendale, rounding into shape for the upcoming Western State Conference season, won its fifth consecutive game in impressive style Saturday night, defeating Cypress and all of its tremendous size, 68-55, to win the Glendale tournament.

The Vaqueros (9-5), the defending tournament champions, have won the event three of the four years it has been held and have an 11-1 tournament record.

Antelope Valley won the consolation championship, 109-96, over Canyons.

Third place went to Compton, a 98-91 winner over Harbor.

Glendale, which has no starter taller than 6-foot-6, was at a great size disadvantage against Cypress (10-2), which starts 6-10 Eric Pauley and 6-9 Andre Lamoureux (the Eiffel Tower?), and has two seven-footers sitting on the bench.

Glendale Coach Brian Beauchemin’s strategy was simple: Don’t let the big guys shoot.

And they weren’t able to. Glendale’s stifling man-to-man defense held Pauley without a field-goal attempt in the second half and kept both big men under 10 points. Pauley, who shot just five times, finished with eight points--six under his average. Lamoureux scored just seven, also six under his average.

“We shut them down,” Beauchemin said. “They never got a good look at the basket the last four minutes.”

And not much of one in the first 36.

Glendale held Cypress to just seven shots in the first 9:50 of the game and forced the Chargers into eight turnovers during that span, building a 19-10 lead.

But Cypress, finally getting the ball inside to Pauley and Lamoureux (the pair scored 14 of their 15 points in the first half), moved ahead, 32-31, at halftime.

Glendale picked up the defensive tempo in the second half, limiting Cypress to seven shots in the first 10:40 and forcing 10 turnovers while taking a 48-41 lead. With five minutes left, Cypress trailed, 53-47, had shot just 12 times and had 14 turnovers. The Chargers finished with 24 turnovers.

Cypress got to within 56-51 down the stretch, but Glendale hit eight of 12 free throws in the final 1:51 and won going away.

“We played perfectly awful tonight against a thoroughly inspired, quick, fundamentally sound team,” Cypress Coach Don Johnson said.

Glendale forward Dave Swanson had game highs in points (18) and rebounds (10). Justin Lord added 14 points, Gary Fowler had 13 points and eight rebounds, and Bruce Heicke, named the tournament most valuable player, had 10 points for the Vaqueros.

In another tournament game:

Antelope Valley 109, Canyons 96--The Marauders (12-3), ranked 15th in the state by the JC Athletic Bureau, settled for the consolation championship but not before getting a scare from Canyons (6-7).

Antelope Valley led, 54-40, at halftime, but Canyons closed to within three points at 83-80 with 7:15 to play. But a three-point basket and two fast-break layups by Tony Madison (21 points) extended the Marauders’ lead to 95-84 with 5:20 left, and Canyons got no closer than seven points the rest of the way.

Steve Walker tied Madison for team scoring honors with a career-high 21 points and he also had nine rebounds. Dedan Thomas added 14 points and 14 assists. Canyons’ Aaron Clark led all scorers with 29 points. Mike Beal (18 points), Larry Allbritton (15 points) and Nick Sanderson (13 points) also scored in double figures for the Cougars.