Morningside Has Surprise for Serra, 65-63 : Pacific Shores: Defending tournament champion Monarchs upset Serra in quarterfinal game. Morningside plays Redondo tonight.

Most of the names have changed since last season, but the Morningside High basketball team showed Wednesday night that it’s still capable of winning big games.

The Monarchs, despite failing to score in the final 1 minute 17 seconds, held on for a 65-63 upset over Serra in the quarterfinals of the 42nd annual Pacific Shores tournament at Redondo High.

Serra (1-1) rallied from a six-point deficit in the final minute and had a chance to win, but Rick Price’s three-point shot glanced off the back of the rim at the buzzer. Price, a 6-foot-6 shooting guard bound for Duke, led all scorers with 30 points.

Morningside (2-0), the defending Pacific Shores champion and winner of three of the past four tournaments, will play host Redondo (2-0) in the semifinals at 7:30 tonight.

Although the Monarchs graduated 12 seniors from last season’s Southern Section Division III-AA championship squad, they made fewer mistakes than Serra and were successful at breaking the Cavalier press, leading to many uncontested baskets.

Junior forward Anthony McNair led Morningside with 22 points and eight rebounds. Guards Sean Williams and Travon Meeks each scored nine.

“I was pleased with the effort,” said Morningside Coach Carl Franklin, whose major complaint was that his team missed three one-and-one free throws in the final minute.

Serra Coach Dwan Hurt said the Cavaliers are struggling to blend a group that includes two transfers in the starting lineup--Price from Long Beach St. Anthony and junior forward Leonard Butler from Leuzinger.

“This early in the season, we’re still trying to find ourselves,” Hurt said.

As with Morningside, the Cavaliers graduated their starting lineup from last season, when they won the State Division IV title.

At this stage, it appears that replacing point guard Alex Davis will be Serra’s most troublesome task. The Cavaliers committed numerous turnovers, including six in the fourth quarter.

“Going into the season, we knew that point guard was going to be our weakness,” Hurt said. “But you have to give Morningside credit. Their 1-2-2 zone (defense) was very effective against us.”

After Morningside took a 65-59 lead with 1:18 left on two free throws by McNair, Serra came back and pulled within 65-63 on a reverse layup by Price with 20 seconds left. Serra forced a turnover on the inbounds pass, but guard Milt Palacio was called for traveling, giving the ball to Morningside with 10 seconds left.

Morningside’s Reggie Saffold missed a one-and-one free throw with seven seconds left, leading to Price’s missed three-pointer.

Price bounced back nicely after a miserable debut for Serra. Aside from finishing with 30 points on 11-for-22 shooting, he had game-high totals of 11 rebounds and six steals. Tuesday, he made only one of 14 shots and finished with six points in a 58-46 victory over North Torrance.

Redondo 51, West Torrance 33--Forward Damani Washington scored 14 points and guards Cecil Fletcher and Morgan Ensberg added 13 and 12, respectively, to lead a balanced attack for the Sea Hawks in a quarterfinal game at Redondo. Center Hani Malati led West (1-1) with 11 points.