COLLEGE BASKETBALL : ANTELOPE VALLEY TOURNAMENT : Canyons Falls to Sequoias, 78-74

Marcell Capers, College of the Sequoias’ standout point guard who put on a dazzling show throughout the night, sank two free throws with four seconds left in overtime to secure a 78-74 victory over gutsy College of the Canyons on Saturday night in the championship game of the Antelope Valley tournament.

Capers, a 6-foot-1 sophomore from Manual Arts High, concluded a memorable tournament performance Saturday with 26 points, eight rebounds and five assists to earn tournament most valuable player honors.

“We came here wanting to get to the championship game,” Capers said. “Because when you get to the championship, anything can happen.”

Indeed, Canyons (6-2) came back from an 11-point second-half deficit to give the Giants (9-1) a scare to remember.

Reggie Bell scored 24 points to lead Canyons and fellow all-tournament player Marquis Wilborn added 16.

The Cougars capped a second-half comeback from a 44-33 halftime deficit when guard Rasaan Hall buried a three-point baseline shot at the buzzer to send the game into overtime.

Hall’s shot, off a pass from David Langley (15 points, four assists), followed consecutive steals by Sequoias (both leading to two points) that gave the Giants a 69-66 lead with six seconds left in regulation.

With Capers running the show, Sequoias opened an 11-point halftime lead as both teams showed the fatigue of having played games on three consecutive days.

Sequoias, which used its strong running game to beat Canyons, 94-75, earlier this season, employed an effective half-court game.

But the Cougars refused to let things get out of hand as Wilborn and Bell drove the basket on several occasions to keep Canyons in the game and set the stage for a wild second half.

In other tournament games:

Santa Monica 87, Antelope Valley 74--Antelope Valley’s D.J. Jackson scored 28 points and teammate Chris Walters added 24, but the Marauders could not execute consistently and lost in the third-place game.

With Antelope Valley (3-5) fouling on nearly every opportunity to stop the clock late in the game, Santa Monica connected on 18 of 26 free throws in the final 5 minutes 12 seconds.

“Tonight I thought we put it all together,” said Santa Monica guard Dorian Manigo, who led the Corsairs (4-3) with 28 points. “The key was our zone. It forced us to play aggressively.”