Pacific Shores Tournament Field Reduced to Four : Prep basketball: Inglewood’s late rally falls short as Morningside advances with a 76-70 victory. It will play Peninsula, a 74-51 winner over Redondo, in a semifinal game tonight.

Morningside High basketball Coach Carl Franklin has adopted a wait-and-see attitude this season.

With two starters--All-Southern Section guard Stais Boseman and 6-foot-8 center Pauliasi Taulava--still playing with the Monarchs’ playoff semifinalist football team, Franklin knows it might be as long as two weeks before his team is at full strength.

But Franklin, who is starting his 17th season, liked what he saw Wednesday night as Morningside held off rival Inglewood, 76-70, in the quarterfinals of the 40th annual Pacific Shores tournament at Redondo High.

The defending champion Monarchs (2-0) will play Peninsula (2-0) in the semifinals at 7:30 tonight at Redondo.

“It was a good test of our character,” Franklin said. “Any time we can beat Inglewood, I’m pleased.”

Inglewood (1-1), which trailed by 11 points at halftime, caught Morningside by surprise in the second half by switching to a zone defense.

“I thought they would be crazy to play zone in the second half,” Franklin said. “I thought they were down by too many.”

Forced to shoot from the outside, the Monarchs went cold from the field, allowing Inglewood to climb back into the game. The Sentinels, who tied the score three times in the second half but never led, closed to within 71-70 on a three-point play by junior forward Chris White with 1:16 left to play.

Morningside, though, dominated the final minute. Junior forward Dwight Curry made a layup to make it 73-70 with 58 seconds left. After Inglewood’s Chris Thomas missed a three-point shot, Monarch reserve guard Chris Blunt made one of two free throws with 14 seconds left and secured the victory with a steal and layup.

Senior guard Donminic Ellison, a transfer from Hawthorne, scored 10 of his team-high 18 points in the fourth quarter to lead four Morningside players in double figures. Curry added 15 points, and 5-4 point guard Sean Harris and 6-6 center Cory Saffold each had 12.

Inglewood Coach Art Bias said it was a good effort by his team, which starts two juniors and a sophomore.

“This is a very young team as far as varsity experience goes and we made a lot of mistakes in the first half,” said Bias, whose team committed 12 turnovers in the first half to help Morningside take a 39-28 lead. “I was pleased with our comeback, but we have a lot of work to do. We made too many mistakes during the critical stretch.

“Morningside did a good job. They showed a lot of poise.”

The 6-3 White led Inglewood with a game-high 19 points.

Peninsula 74, Redondo 51--Forward John Anthony, a 6-7 senior bound for Loyola Marymount, scored 21 of his game-high 24 points in the first quarter to lead the Panthers. With Anthony scoring from the inside as well as the outside--he made four three-point shots in the first quarter--Peninsula took leads of 9-0 and 20-2 before finishing the quarter with a 25-5 advantage. The Panthers increased their lead to 42-19 at halftime.

“He got us off to a tremendous start,” Peninsula Coach John Mihaljevich said.

Redondo (1-1), playing its second game under former Rolling Hills Coach Cliff Warren, was without point guard Ted Silva, who missed the game because of illness. Forward David Cottey led the Sea Hawks with 16 points.