SOUTHERN SECTION BOYS’ BASKETBALL PLAYOFF ROUNDUP : Knight Makes Right for Buena in Victory Over West Covina

Senior forward Robbie Knight converted a three-point play with eight seconds remaining to lift Buena High to a 64-63 victory over West Covina on Tuesday night in a Southern Section Division I first-round playoff game at Buena.

Buena (15-10) rallied from a seven-point deficit in the final 2 minutes 30 seconds, holding West Covina (14-11) scoreless during that period.

John Tobias added 20 points for Buena and David Nutting scored 12.

The Bulldogs led by as many as 15 in the first half, but were outscored, 21-10, in the third period and fell behind, 51-46.

Thousand Oaks 91, Walnut 54--The Lancers scored 61 points in the second half in a Division I-A first-round game at Thousand Oaks (21-6).

Senior forward Jason Hartman had 28 points, 17 rebounds and four assists to lead the Lancers, and guard Peter Lauer had 25 points and four assists. Hartman and Lauer both are three-year starters.

Senior forward Brian Downing added 11 points for Thousand Oaks, four-time champion of the Marmonte League.

O’Real Cotton led Walnut (11-14) with 22 points.

Palmdale 108, Temecula Valley 69--Al Lairson (28) and Maurice Wright (26) combined for 54 points to lead the host Falcons (22-3) in a rout over Temecula Valley (15-10) in a Division I-A first-round game.

The Falcons scored first and never let up en route to their highest-scoring performance of the season.

Palmdale led by 20 points at halftime.

Palmdale will face Hart, which had a first-round bye, in a second-round game.

Hart, the Times’ top-rated team, defeated Palmdale, ranked No. 3, 55-52, in a tournament game in December.

Saugus 57, Arroyo Grande 34--R.J. Hayes scored 14 points and John Dell added 12 points and 12 rebounds for the Centurions (11-11) in a Division I-A first-round game at Arroyo Grande (15-11).

Hayes made four three-pointers.

Crescenta Valley 72, Nogales 61--The underdog Falcons shot 54% from the field, 92% from the free-throw line where their 11 points made the difference in the Division I-AA first-round game.

Brock Jacobsen scored a season-high 38 points, making 15 of 21 shots from the field, including four of six three-point attempts. Richard O’Neill added 23 points.

Crescenta Valley (16-8) beat the Sierra League’s No. 1 entry with a 30-18 fourth-quarter surge. Nogales finished 19-5.

Fillmore 58, Santa Ynez 55-- Fillmore won the Division IV-AA first-round game at Fillmore behind 16 points from Andrew Torres.

Torres hit three three-point shots in the second quarter to give Fillmore a 31-30 lead. Mike Vaiz added eight points and 12 rebounds for Fillmore and Justin Burnett had nine steals and eight points.

The Flashes worked the ball inside in the third quarter, with Isaac Reyes getting eight of his 12 points.

Fillmore outscored Santa Ynez, 20-10, in the quarter.

Santa Ynez lost its season opener to Fillmore but later won the Fillmore tournament without playing the host Flashes. Fillmore has lost five players since the season opened.

St. Joseph 82, St. Bonaventure 54--The return of Rod Tepesano was not enough to help the Seraphs in a Division IV-A wild-card game.

Tepesano, who missed the final five games of the regular season after tearing knee ligaments, watched St. Bonaventure plummet from a championship contender to the No. 3 team from the Tri-Valley League.

Tepesano made four of five three-point attempts and scored 17 points.

Chad Rifley added 10 points for the Seraphs (11-12), who led, 17-12, after the first quarter. Shad Ianneo of St. Joseph had 27 points and burned St. Bonaventure with seven three-pointers.

Buckley 72, Hamilton 63--T.J. Jackson scored a game-high 24 points--including six in overtime--to go along with seven assists for Buckley in the Division V-AA wild-card game at Hamilton.

Eric Biddle had 12 points and six steals for Buckley (12-10) and Keith Armstrong added 10 points and nine rebounds.

Moorpark 64, Notre Dame 58--Micah Hanson had 23 points and 12 rebounds for host Moorpark in the Division III-A wild-card game.

Hanson scored 15 points in the first quarter to help Moorpark to a 22-6 lead, but he did not score again until the fourth period.

Mike McKenzie and Jesse Ahearn each added 10 points for Moorpark (13-12).

Rich Igou led Notre Dame (12-14) with 18 points.