BOSCO TECH TOURNAMENT : Lancers Fall After Shots Don’t, 82-76

Chris Loll rolled toward the hoop on a breakaway in the first quarter of Thousand Oaks High’s championship quarterfinal game of the Bosco Tech tournament Wednesday night.

Cruising toward the basket down the left flank, the 6-foot-5 forward cocked the ball in his left hand as he considered whether he wanted to attempt a dunk or kiss the ball off the glass.

His indecision forced him to settle for something in between, a half-dash dunk that barely crawled over the lip of the rim and rattled through.

There would be darn few good rolls for Loll or Thousand Oaks thereafter, however, as the Lancers were held to a season-low point total in an 82-76 loss to Downey at Bosco Tech High in Rosemead.

“It definitely wasn’t pretty when we shot the ball,” Thousand Oaks Coach Ed Chevalier said.

Thousand Oaks (4-1) will face Hoover tonight at 8:30 in a fifth-place semifinal.

The Lancers, who entered the game averaging 89.5 points a game, jumped to a 19-8 lead after one quarter. From then on, though, Downey offered no quarter and the Lancers couldn’t heave a dime in the ocean.

“Obviously, the shooting was the problem, Chevalier said as he perused a rather sobering team statistics sheet. “And it was a collective effort.”

Other than Loll, who came within one point of his season average by scoring a game-high 25 points, Thousand Oaks threw up a thousand bricks. The Lancers made just 28 of 73 field-goal attempts (38.3%) and were held to one field goal over the first 5 minutes 38 seconds of the fourth quarter.

Thousand Oaks led, 37-31, at halftime before Downey’s tandem of Ron Brown and Stieve Boyd took over.

Brown, a 6-foot-3, 255-pound forward who definitely will not be confused with the National Football League speedster of the same name, scored a team-high 22 points off the bench for Downey (5-2), including 14 in the second half.

“Their big guys took over and ours didn’t respond,” Chevalier said. “Our inside play is crucial to any success we’re going to have.”

Thousand Oaks starting center Dusty Lysobey had 11 points and reserve center Shane Graham had three.

“I think their big guys came to play,” Loll said.

Ditto the little dudes.

Downey made a head-spinning 21 of 29 shots (72.4%) from the field in the second half and quickly pulled even.

The Vikings scored on nine of their first 11 field-goal attempts after halftime and took a 49-48 lead with 3:15 left in the third quarter. Boyd, a 5-11 guard, scored 10 of his 18 points in the third quarter, which ended with Downey holding a 55-54 lead.

The fourth quarter was misery in microcosm for Thousand Oaks, which was outscored, 9-1, before the Lancers called a timeout with 5:52 to play.

The T.O. T.O. didn’t help sway the momentum a bit.

“As the game went on, Downey started to gain confidence,” Chevalier said. “And we lost ours.”

The Lancers didn’t score from the field in the quarter until Andrew Borg scored on a layin with 4:05 left to bring Thousand Oaks within 68-60.

Borg and backcourt mate Brian Capella, who entered the game averaging 10.3 and 14.8 points, were held to five and seven points, respectively.

Thousand Oaks resorted to fouling as the game wore down and closed to within 76-70 when Loll scored inside with 1:02 left. Downey’s Mark Rand made both ends of a one-and-one opportunity with one minute left to give the Vikings an eight-point lead.

In other quarterfinal games:

Burbank 65, West Torrance 57 (2 OTs)--Jon Warner scored a team-high 19 points to lead Burbank (4-4) into a semifinal-round game Friday night at 7:30.

Burbank will play the winner of today’s game between Eagle Rock and El Modena.

With 19 seconds left in the second overtime, Burbank’s Spencer Klocki made both ends of a one-and-one opportunity to give Burbank a 63-55 lead.

Mike Palaski scored 18 points for Burbank and made five of seven free throws in overtime.

Long Beach Poly 71, Hoover 47--Junior center Gabe Alvarado had 17 points to lead the Tornadoes. Ten of his points came in the first half and helped Hoover to a 27-23 lead at halftime.

But Long Beach Poly tied the score at the start of the second half and broke open the game midway through the third quarter with an 11-0 run.

Hoover’s strategy of packing five players into the key and begging Poly (7-2) to shoot from the outside worked--for half the game.

Hoover led by four at halftime as Poly was ice cold from the perimeter.

In the second half, however, Poly poured it on and poured it in. The Jackrabbits outscored Hoover, 20-6, in the first six minutes of the third quarter and led, 47-36, entering the fourth quarter.

Poly’s third-quarter run was led by Tyus Edney, a 5-11 senior point guard who has signed a letter of intent to play next season at UCLA. Edney scored nine of his team-high 18 points in the quarter.

Junior guard Dave Ulloa added 11 points for Hoover.