A Rough Outing for Morningside, Carson : Basketball: South Bay high schools fail to live up to expectations at summer tournament.

The highest rating proved precarious for the top two seeded teams in the Carson Summer Grand Finale boys’ basketball tournament at Carson High on Saturday.

Top-seeded Morningside fell in the championship semifinal and settled for a third-place finish. Defending champion and second-seeded Carson lost twice before rebounding to win the consolation bracket title.

Tustin defeated Southgate, 78-70, in the championship.

In the afternoon semifinal, defending State Division III champion Tustin erased a 10-point, second-half deficit to force an overtime before beating Morningside, 50-47. The Monarchs then defeated Dominguez, 62-56, in the third-place game.

Trailing by two at intermission, Morningside ran off 12 consecutive points to lead Tustin, 43-33. But the Monarchs managed only one more field goal in the final 8:13 of regulation and were outscored, 5-1, in overtime.

Junior forward Stais Boseman led Morningside with 14 points and center Pauliasi Taulava and Dominique Ellison contributed nine points each.

“Tustin’s a well-disciplined team that plays good defense,” Boseman said. “You can’t make mistakes if you want to beat them. We gave it our best shot but came up short.”

Morningside played the first game without reserve forward Dwight Curry, who missed the contest due to a scheduling conflict. The 6-foot-2 junior made his presence felt in the nightcap by contributing 16 points, nine rebounds and three steals.

A 13-3 spurt put the Monarchs ahead and Boseman’s three-point basket at the buzzer gave them a 38-33 halftime lead. Dominguez closed to within 43-42, but that was the closest the Dons would get.

Boseman again led all scorers with 18 points, Taulava added 10 and Ellison had eight.

“Curry is an exceptional leaper and he’s an emotional kid so he kind of gives us a spark when he comes in,” Morningside Coach Carl Franklin said. “But the real key was on the boards.

“We weren’t boxing them out very well and they kind of had their way with us. Once we neutralized that, we had it more to our liking.”

Morningside, which went 4-1 in the tournament, previously beat Inglewood, Bishop Montgomery and San Diego Morse.

Carson played without All-City guard Rudy Washington, who is attending the prestigious Nike summer camp in New Jersey. On Saturday morning, the Colts manhandled Morse, 82-63, then returned to defeat Concordia (Wash.) Battleground, 59-50, in the evening consolation championship.

With 10:50 to play in the first half, the Colts trailed, 11-8, but an 8-0 run over the next three minutes gave them a lead they would not relinquish.

At one juncture in the second half, Battleground sliced the lead to six. Carson then responded with a 10-2 run and led, 50-37, with 5:49 remaining.

Guard William Thomas led the Colts with 13 points, 6-10 center Khary Stanley had 10 and Tyrone Daniels contributed seven.

“We lost to Tustin by four and to St. Bernard by two points and at no time did we play with our whole team,” said Carson Coach Rich Masson, whose club won three of five games in the 16-team tournament.

“Considering that, I’m pleased with our effort. I think William Thomas did a fine job, Chris Ramsey really contributed and Stanley also played well at times.”

The five other South Bay entries did not fare as well. St. Bernard, Peninsula and Inglewood finished 1-2 and Bishop Montgomery and Hawthorne went 0-3.