IRVINE WORLD NEWS TOURNAMENT : Kunz’s Late Shot Lets Kennedy Edge Irvine

After scoring 35 points and grabbing 28 rebounds in Friday’s semifinal victory over University, Kennedy’s Patrick Kunz wondered what he could do for an encore in Saturday night’s championship game of the Irvine World News Tournament against Irvine.

Kunz responded by sinking an eight-foot rebound shot with two seconds to go, giving the Fighting Irish a 56-55 victory over the Vaqueros at Christ College Irvine.

“I was a little bit worried what kind of a game I’d have after it (the semifinal),” said Kunz, who was named the tournament’s MVP. “The ball just came my way, I pumped a couple of times and it went in. There was a little luck involved.”

Actually, it was Kunz’s second rebound shot that went in after Kennedy guard Steve Vetica missed the front end of a one-and-one free-throw situation with nine seconds remaining. Kunz’s first shot missed, but the ball came his way a second time.

Irvine (6-2) led, 50-41, on Jim French’s basket with 3:25 left. But Kennedy (5-3) rallied behind a pressure defense and the free-throw shooting of Jeff Cummins, who hit six in a row, the final two cutting the deficit to 53-52 with 1:55 remaining.

Kennedy guard Paul Pappas’ rebound shot gave the Fighting Irish a 54-53 lead with 1:23 left, but Irvine’s Brent Eldridge hit both ends of a one-and-one with 30 seconds left for a 55-54 lead.

In other tournament games:

Palos Verdes Peninsula 80, University 67--The Trojans (2-5) couldn’t overcome Peninsula’s height advantage despite Demitrius Zeigler’s 33 points, including seven three-pointers. Peninsula (7-2) was led by Matt Acres and Ryan Howley with 19 apiece.

Compton 70, Santa Ana Valley 50--Jovan Robinson scored 23 points for Santa Ana Valley (4-5) in the consolation final.

Woodbridge 57, Marina 45--Gignesh Movalia and Arash Ghazinoor each scored 16 points for Woodbridge (4-3). Marina is 4-4.

Diamond Bar 71, Saddleback 65--Keith Van Horn scored 36 points for Diamond Bar (5-4). Chris Bradshaw and Bob Dreyer each scored 15 for Saddleback (2-5).

Santa Ana 63, Pomona Garey 62--Fred Mora made both ends of a one-and-one in the final minute to provide the winning margin for the Saints (3-3).

San Ramon California 59, San Clemente 46--Luke Mannix scored 11 points for San Clemente (3-6).