BOYS’ BASKETBALL ROUNDUP : Los Alamitos’ Defensive Pressure Stops Katella, Carlson

Los Alamitos threw a tight defense over Katella and its scoring leader Brian Carlson to take a 56-47 victory in the semifinals of the Western-Savanna tournament Friday night at Savanna High School.

The Griffins (3-0) advance to the finals, where they will meet Paramount at 7:30 tonight at Western High School.

“I’m very pleased with our defense,” Griffin Coach Steve Brooks said. (Huyen) Little was outstanding and Collin (Burke) did a nice job rebounding and gave us some offense.”

Katella (2-1), which is expected to challenge Los Alamitos’ defense of the Empire League championship, was unable to get any consistent scoring against the Griffins’ zone defense in the first half and man-to-man defense in the second half. The Knights only hit on 14 of 54 shot attempts and Carlson, who scored 11 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, only shot one of eight field-goal attempts against Little.

Little’s basket gave the Griffins a 32-25 lead with 6 minutes 26 seconds left in the third quarter, but the Knights rallied to narrow the gap to 32-31 with 3:06 left in the third.

Steve Carbone took a pass off a steal on the fast break and hit a layup to give the Griffins a 45-33 lead with 5:49 left in the game to climax a 12-2 scoring spree. Nick Roditis’ three-point basket with 28 seconds left closed the gap to 52-47, but Carbone and Tim Lin each hit a pair of free throws in the closing seconds to clinch the victory.

Little and Carbone led the Griffin scoring with 18 points apiece, while Burke contributed 10 rebounds. Roditis led Katella with 14 points.

In other Savanna-Western tournament games:

Servite 38, Savanna 31 (OT)--David Downs scored five of his 12 points in overtime to lead the Friars (1-1) in a consolation semifinal.

--TOM BIRSCHBACH

In the Valencia tournament:

Troy 57, Downey Warren 55--Matt Cardillo, the tournament’s most valuable player, scored 19 points for Troy.

In the Cerritos Gahr tournament:

Esperanza 56, Compton Centennial--Guard Mike Thimgan, who made nine of his 10 free throws, scored 15 points for visiting Esperanza (2-1). Forward Marcus Jones also contributed for the Aztecs with 14 points, including three three-pointers.

In the Faith Baptist tournament:

Brethren Christian 57, St. Genevieve 49--Paul Diniakos led the Warriors (2-1) with 21 points, and teammate Rich Mendoza added 13 points and eight assists.

In the Palm Desert tournament:

San Clemente 84, Palo Verde 63--Forward Luke Mannix scored 31 points and Graham Gary added 18 for San Clemente (2-1).

In the San Luis Obispo tournament:

Ocean View 68, Hart 56--Jim Harris had 10 points and 15 assists for Ocean View (2-0).