BEVERLY HILLS TOURNAMENT : Up-Tempo Royal Rolls Past Buena

If Royal High had turned in Wednesday’s first-half performance 15 years ago, there might have been a ticker-tape parade awaiting the Highlanders in Simi Valley.

In fact, a similar performance two years ago might have earned Coach Joe Malkinson a shot at mayor.

After all, Royal’s up-tempo game approached turbo power at times. The Highlanders scored 46 points and appeared more than worthy of their No. 2 seeding at the Beverly Hills tournament.

But this is a new era of Highlander Hoops, one that isn’t satisfied with moral victories. Although Royal eventually handed Buena a 91-71 defeat and advanced to the semifinals for the first time in four trips here, Malkinson wasn’t tossing confetti in the locker room at halftime.

“We were playing bad defense, reaching, off-balance, little things like that,” Malkinson said. “We have some definite room for improvement.”

Expectations have changed since Royal won a school-record 20 games and a share of its first Marmonte League title last season.

Royal’s Jared Byrne and Kevin Hambly, a pair of 6-7 seniors, have been nearly unstoppable. In the two games preceding Wednesday’s contest, they combined for 90 points and 66 rebounds. Not much changed against Buena, when Byrne (23 points) and Hambly (17 points) dominated the boards and blocked 11 shots.

And the outside shooting of David Tyner (15 points) and Aaron Kammerman (eight points), who have combined to hit 25 three-pointers, complemented Royal’s dominant inside game.

“We’re just happy it’s over,” Buena Coach Glen Hannah said. “That is an excellent team.”

Take nothing from Buena (2-3), which doesn’t have a player taller than 6-4 but didn’t allow Royal to run away with the game until the final two minutes. Lance Fay scored a game-high 26 points, Nick Houchin scored 17, and Matt Bortolin added 13 for the Bulldogs.

“We played one of our better games of the season,” Hannah said.

But, in what suddenly has become habit the past two years, Royal was the dominant team.

“We had some nice moments as a team, and that’s what the preseason is for,” Malkinson said. “We got some real nice play from our bench, and that’s important when you run as much as did tonight.”

In other tournament games:

Redondo Beach 70, Notre Dame 54--Notre Dame could not overcome a sluggish start that was spurred, in part, by fatigue and an aggressive Redondo Beach defense in a quarterfinal game.

Notre Dame (6-2), playing its eighth game in 2 1/2 weeks, never recovered from a 28-18 halftime deficit.

Saugus 57, Westlake 50--Greg Yumbar scored 15 points and Steve Tampus added 14 to lead the Centurions (4-2) in the consolation round of the Beverly Hills tournament. John Van Spyk scored 11 for Westlake (2-4).

Beverly Hills 56, Rio Mesa 43--Manuk Kayaoglu scored 18 points for Rio Mesa, but the Spartans dropped the quarterfinal game.