CENTURY TOURNAMENT : El Modena’s Second Wind Beats Buena Park for Title

With six minutes remaining and Buena Park leading by 10 points, El Modena’s struggling offense got a second wind Saturday night in the championship game of the Carl’s Jr. Century Basketball Tournament at Century High School.

El Modena found new life when Buena Park began to commit a rash of turnovers that allowed the Vanguards to tie the score at the end of regulation and beat the Coyotes, 52-46, in overtime for the tournament title.

“We picked up defensively and did some things really different offensively,” El Modena Coach Tim Tivenan said. “Buena Park shut off our passing lanes really well and stopped us most of the game, so we started doing more screening and setting things up a little better.”

Buena Park (8-5) led the entire game behind center Richard Harvey, who finished with 23 points on 11 of 14 shooting, and with help from guards Prentice Johnson and Chris Stone, who plugged up the Vanguard offense.

As the Coyotes led, 39-29, El Modena (9-5) started capitalizing on the Coyotes’ fourth-quarter turnovers and trailed, 44-42, after Bob Baytosh’s three-point basket with 36 seconds remaining. After another Buena Park turnover, Mike Terry’s eight-foot baseline jumper at 1:01 tied the score, 44-44, to send the game into overtime.

Terry hit the first basket with 1:20 remaining in overtime and added a pair of free throws with 38 seconds left for a 50-46 lead. Terry was named MVP for the tournament.

In other tournament games:

Fullerton 80, Loara 67--Fullerton (7-6) relied on balanced scoring to offset the firepower of Loara’s Tes Whitlock to capture the third-place title. Pete Quis scored 17 points and Craig Olsen and Chris Hartshorn had 16 points each for the Indian. Whitlock scored 27 points.

St. Paul 58, Westminster 52--Greg Gomez and Brandon Ertle scored 16 points each to lead the Swordsmen (4-7) over the Lions, who were led by Jesse Gomez (15) in the consolation championship game.

Century 66, Newport Harbor 64--The host Centurions (7-4) upset the Sailors with 27-point burst in the fourth quarter. Sophomore Darvin Thompson led Century with 30 points. Huy Nguyen and Justin McIntee led the Sailors (8-6) with 35 and 21 points respectively.