Without Star Center, Sentinels Still Win : Prep basketball: Inglewood holds on in final seconds to beat Dominguez, 51-50, in Artesia tournament.

Inglewood High has proven to be quite a basketball team with center Paul Pierce.

On Wednesday night, the Sentinels proved pretty good without him, holding on for a 51-50 victory over Dominguez in a semifinal game of the Artesia Holiday Classic tournament at Artesia High.

Pierce, Inglewood’s leading scorer, sat out most of the first half after picking up three fouls in the first four minutes.

The 6-5 junior, who had scored 58 points in Inglewood’s first- and second-round victories over Paramount and Verbum Dei, did not score until the 2:34 mark of the third quarter and finished with a season-low 8 points.

No need to worry.

Senior guard Sam Turks stepped to the fore with a game-high 19 points against Dominguez (10-2), a team which on Dec. 22 had defeated Oak Hill Academy of Virginia--the nation’s top-ranked team by USA Today.

“Everybody was looking forward to Dominguez,” Turks said. “I think we surprised some people. When (Pierce) went out, everybody had to step it up to make up for his loss.”

Inglewood saw a 10-point third-quarter lead turn into a 2-point deficit midway through the fourth quarter.

Pierce responded with 6 of Inglewood’s first 7 points of the fourth quarter and the Sentinels took a 51-48 lead on a layup by Abdul Benjamin with 22 seconds left.

Dominguez closed to 51-50 with 13 seconds to play on a basket by Thomas Prince, but missed a jump shot as time expired.

Inglewood (12-1) will try to avenge its only defeat and capture its third tournament title against Westchester (12-3) in the final at 8:30 tonight.

Turks scored Inglewood’s first 9 points of the second quarter and Ray Outler came off the bench with two consecutive baskets to spark an 8-2 run for a 23-16 Inglewood lead with 31 seconds left in the first half.

Dominguez went ahead 42-40 with 4:07 left but Inglewood took the lead for good on a three-point play by Benjamin eight seconds later.

Westchester 81, Serra 49

The Comets rolled to their eighth consecutive victory in a semifinal game.

Ben Sanders had 21 points for Westchester. Danny Walker had 18 points, including four three-point baskets, and Jarvis Young added 16 points.

Ricky Price had a game-high 25 points for Serra (5-7), which will play Dominguez in the third-place game at 6:55 tonight.