Leuzinger, Narbonne Advance to Torrance Final

Leuzinger High basketball Coach Phil Sherman said that despite the Olympians’ 6-2 record, they haven’t been executing particularly well. And in the first half of their Torrance tournament game Thursday night at West Torrance High against Rancho Alamitos, Leuzinger’s play fit the coach’s pregame description.

“I don’t know what our problem has been for the last three games.” Sherman said. “We haven’t been playing very well at the beginning of our ballgames. . . . The difference tonight was that (Rancho Alamitos) could not handle the pressure that we applied in the second half.”

Leuzinger finally defeated Rancho Alamitos, 85-60, to advance to tonight’s championship game. The Olympians will play Narbonne at 7:30.

Leuzinger seized control of the game in the final quarter with an 11-2 run that increased its lead to 69-49.

Back-to-back slam dunks by Frank Willis and Tyrone Merriweather seemed to get the Olympians out of their early funk, but pesky Rancho Alamitos (2-4) kept it close and trailed, 40-32, at halftime.

Tough defense coupled with the hot perimeter shooting of Antwan Lewis enabled Leuzinger to begin to pull away in the third quarter. Lewis scored eight of his game-high 16 points in the period and the Olympians stretched their lead to 59-47.

Robert Northern added 14 points and Merriweather 12 for Leuzinger.

Narbonne 61, West 59--Two free throws by Vijay Mani with 28 seconds remaining helped the Gauchos preserve their come-from-behind victory.

“They (West) were able to get off to a fast start in the first half because they dominated the boards.” Narbonne Coach Bob Hoppes said. “We made some adjustments at halftime and played a man-to-man defense in the second half. That allowed us to get back into the game.”

It was an uphill battle for the Gauchos (5-6). After falling behind by 12 points in the first half, they chipped away at Warriors’ lead and trailed, 32-27, at halftime.

Going into the final quarter, Narbonne trailed, 41-40.

The Gauchos’ Wil Weir led all scorers with the 21 points. Dmitri Rideout had 18 and Charles Watkins added 10.

West’s Todd Blischke had 19 points, Jim Faulkner scored 13 and David Foster added 12.

West (3-7) will play Rancho Alamitos in tonight’s consolation game at 6 p.m.