BOYS’ BASKETBALL ROUNDUP

In another Tournament of Champions quarterfinal:

Mater Dei 58, Los Angeles Fairfax 50--The Monarchs (4-0) trailed early, but outscored Fairfax (3-1) 15-8 in the third quarter to take control.

Shaun Jackson had 26 points and 12 rebounds, making nine of 12 shots from the field, and Clay McKnight added 15 points, including four three-pointers for Mater Dei. Teammate Schea Cotton had 12 points and 10 rebounds but made only three of nine shots.

Jair Fray scored 12 points for Fairfax, which kept it close despite shooting 35% from the field.

In the Irvine World News Tournament:

Long Beach Jordan 71, Woodbridge 54--Of the many lessons the Woodbridge Warriors will learn this season, an important one was taught to them by Long Beach Jordan: A one-man team rarely beats a five-man team.

Woodbridge center Chris Burgess led all scorers with 23 points, but the other Warriors only added 21, and that was not enough to stop the Panthers in their quarterfinal victory in the Irvine World News Tournament at Woodbridge.

Jordan (4-3) allowed Burgess to dominate only one quarter--the third, in which he scored 14 of his team’s 16 points. But Burgess was scoreless in the second quarter, and had only five of Woodbridge’s nine points in the fourth.

Just as important, Jordan’s full-court trap zone defense on Woodbridge (5-2) in the second half quickly turned a 31-29 halftime lead into a 48-37 advantage. The Warriors never got closer than four the rest of the way.

“We didn’t use the trap (in an opening victory against Huntington Beach), so I figured they hadn’t seen it,” Panthers Coach Ron Massey said. “We had to be quicker than them because their big guy was just eating us up.”

Jordan next faces Estancia, a 68-39 winner over Palos Verde Chadwick, in Friday’s semifinals.