SOUTHERN SECTION BOYS’ BASKETBALL PLAYOFFS : DIVISION II-AA : Inglewood Tops Huntington Beach

Tony Gonzalez’s spectacular high school athletic career ended in resounding fashion Friday night at Marina High. Gonzalez did what he could, scoring 23 points and grabbing 11 rebounds, but his Huntington Beach team never had a chance against second-seeded Inglewood and lost, 60-47, in the Southern Section Division II-AA quarterfinals.

Afterward, there was no bitterness and no tears from Gonzalez.

“We played hard,” he said. “I’m not mad. We played as hard as we could; they were just a better team. We would have had to play a perfect game to beat them.”

And even that might not have been good enough to beat an Inglewood team that had two terrific players, forward Paul Pierce and guard Sam Turks (14 points, two three-pointers), and enough quickness to keep up with many college teams.

Pierce, a 6-4 junior, scored 22 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and had four thunderous dunks.

“That one dunk, I don’t know where he took off from,” Huntington Beach Coach Roy Miller said.

Said Gonzalez: “He’s really good. He’s the best player I’ve played against.”

Inglewood was equally impressed with Gonzalez.

“We wanted to stop Gonzalez all night,” Inglewood Coach Patrick Roy said. “But he’s too strong for us down low. We knew we couldn’t let him run wild.”

As it turned out, Roy’s team did most of the running. They came out and ran off the game’s first 12 points and took a 16-6 lead after the first quarter. Huntington Beach stayed within range, 26-16, at the half, thanks to a 2-3 zone and 10 second-quarter points from Gonzalez.

The Oilers made Roy sweat as they scored the first six points of the third quarter on three-pointers from Vasili Hatziris and Matt Malmquist.

“That’s the first time I took my jacket off all year,” Roy said. “I was a nervous wreck.”

But Roy needn’t worry. His team turned up the heat defensively and went on a 10-1 run over the next two minutes to take a 36-23 lead. The Oilers never got closer than nine after that.

However, Gonzalez did finish with a bang. He came down the lane with 30 seconds left and threw down a vicious, albeit meaningless, dunk.

“I wanted to go out with a dunk,” he said. “And I wanted to make my last shot.”

He did that too, hitting a baseline shot in the waning seconds.