Redondo, Inglewood Reach Shores Final : Prep basketball: Sea Hawks look impressive in beating defending championship Morningside. Inglewood cruises past Peninsula.

The Redondo High boys’ basketball team showed that the balance of power in the Ocean League may be shifting by handily beating defending league champion Morningside, 70-51, Thursday night in the semifinals of the 42nd Pacific Shores tournament at Redondo.

“What a big win for us,” Redondo Coach Jim Nielsen said. “No way did I think we would win by 19 points. We’ve been waiting for this for a while.”

The Sea Hawks, who have not won the Pacific Shores title since 1975, will play Inglewood in the final at 7:30 Saturday night at Redondo. Inglewood last won the title in 1979.

Redondo (3-0) was led by senior guards Morgan Ensberg, Damani Washington and Cecil Fletcher. Ensberg led all scorers with 21 points, Washington had 20 and Fletcher, who scored seven, was a catalyst with his defense and steady play at the point.

“It was the best guard play of the tournament,” Nielsen said. “Those three guys just played spectacular for us. I think that was the best game Morgan has played in the two years I’ve seen.”

Redondo used a full-court press to pressure an inexperienced Morningside team. The Monarchs (2-1) committed 16 turnovers, most in transition.

“I think they’ve got good ball handlers, but we are much quicker than them, and we tried to take advantage of that,” Nielsen said.

Morningside, which beat Banning and Serra in the first two rounds of the tournament, was led by junior forward Anthony McNair with 16 points.

Redondo center Brian Hattingh had 14 points and seven rebounds before fouling out in the fourth quarter.

Inglewood 73, Peninsula 62--Inglewood Coach Pat Roy said Peninsula was the team to beat in the tournament--and that is exactly what his Sentinels did in the other semifinal game.

Inglewood (3-0) dominated the first half en route to a 39-12 halftime lead.

“Peninsula played an excellent game (Wednesday) against Mira Costa,” Roy said. “I believed they were the team to beat. This is the best we’ve played in a long time. We played our style.”

A key to the Sentinels’ success was their ability to keep a taller Peninsula team off the boards. Forwards Paul Pierce and Ralph Shelton had nine and eight rebounds, respectively, for Inglewod.

“Ralph was there going for every rebound he could get,” Roy said. “Those two just pounded the boards tonight for us.”

Pierce was also the game’s leading scorer with 22 points. Guard Sam Turks scored 14 points for Inglewood.

Peninsula guard Brian Hogentogler, the team’s leading scorer in the first two games, saw limited action because of flu. In addition, starting forward Andrew Klein sat out his third game because of a bone chip in his right wrist. He’s expected back within the next week.

Sophomore forward Phil Belin picked up the slack for Peninsula (2-1), leading the team with 13 points and seven rebounds.