NORTH HOLLYWOOD TOURNAMENT : Title a Cakewalk for Granada Hills

A few moments after his team had handily won the North Hollywood tournament Saturday night, Granada Hills High Coach Bob Johnson was handed a microphone and asked to offer a few words about each player.

He hemmed.

He hawed.

He almost blushed.

His team had no such trouble getting started--and was nowhere near as humble. The Highlanders are ready for prime time.

Granada Hills scored 35 points in the second quarter and easily routed El Camino Real, 106-73, in the championship game. It marked the Highlanders’ third North Hollywood tournament title in the past five years.

Granada Hills, the lone City Section 4-A Division team in the event and the top-ranked team in the region by The Times, squeezed 19 first-half turnovers out of the young Conquistadores, who started two sophomores.

The game might have been over in the first five minutes, by which time Granada Hills (10-1) had rolled up a 15-3 lead.

How lopsided was it? El Camino Real’s starting center, Chris Teich, left for the locker room with a gash on his elbow in the first quarter, leaving behind a trail of blood on the hardwood.

“We started in a man-to-man, full-court press,” Johnson said. “That seemed to rattle them a little bit.”

It was shake, rattle and roll, right to the title.

“We just came out and went right for the championship,” Granada Hills forward Jerry Allen said. “We put the pressure on.”

Granada Hills led, 56-25, at halftime, and three Highlander players had already reached double figures. Allen blew open the game by scoring 12 of his game-high 26 points in the third quarter as Granada Hills took a 78-52 lead.

Allen, selected the tournament’s most valuable player, emerged from a scoring rut of sorts. The 6-foot-4 senior had scored 23 points in each of the past four games.

In fact, Allen has been playing so well that Johnson seems to be getting spoiled. Maybe he has his reasons--Allen was averaging 22.5 points, 12.9 rebounds and six assists entering the game. Allen also had 17 rebounds and five assists against the Conquistadores.

“He scored 26 points?” Johnson said. “That was a sneaky 26.”

The rest of the attack was as direct as a head-on collision. Six Highlanders scored in double figures as Johnson cleared the bench. Leading the the double-digit honor roll were George Vicuna and Adrian Sellers with 12 points each. Sagy Koren, Randy Eason and Shelton Simmons added 11.

Markee Brown, a sophomore, led El Camino Real with 24 points. Clyde Price added 14 and Sam Sarpong, another sophomore starter, scored 13.

Allen put the game away for good--not that it was really in doubt--by scoring three consecutive Highlander baskets in the third quarter.

After El Camino Real (6-2) crawled within 63-40, Allen scored inside on a follow shot, slammed home a breakaway dunk and then tipped in an alley-oop lob to give Granada Hills a 69-42 lead with 3 minutes 35 seconds left in the quarter.

In other games:

Grant 52, North Hollywood 42--North Hollywood (6-4) crept within 43-39 with 3:21 remaining, but Grant’s Jason Astor nailed a 15-foot jump shot to give the Lancers a six-point lead in the third-place game.

Eric Brown (six points, seven assists) added a three-point shot to give Grant a 48-39 lead with 2:10 left.

Brunell Mori scored a team-high 13 points and added 16 rebounds to lead Grant (7-2), which has beaten North Hollywood twice this season.

Reseda 76, Bell-Jeff 62--Junior swingman Marquis Burns scored 13 of his game-high 23 points in the second half to hold off a Bell-Jeff rally and lead the Regents (4-4) to the consolation title.

A trio of Reseda players took turns carrying the team offensively. With the Regents leading, 45-36, at halftime, Burns scored seven of his team’s 11 points in the third quarter.

James Pigford added 19 points for Reseda, including 10 in the second quarter.

Bennie Scott, who finished with 10 points, scored eight in the first quarter as the Regents took a 26-17 lead.

James Chen had 12 points for Reseda. Brian Lee scored a team-high 19 for Bell-Jeff (4-5) and teammates Ignacio Castro (18) and Bob Machuca (12) also scored in double figures.