Sports

PREPS

Dominguez and its national rankings carried little significance to the Lynwood High boys’ basketball team.

The Dons entered Friday’s game riding a 15-game winning streak and a No. 7 ranking nationally by USA Today.

Lynwood, though, came away with a 64-60 victory and a put itself in contention for its fifth San Gabriel Valley League title in six seasons. Lynwood (17-8) and Dominguez (23-2) are tied for the league lead at 8-1 with a game remaining.

Lynwood, which defeated Paramount, 83-62, on Tuesday, will play host to Warren in its league finale tonight and Dominguez will travel to Gahr.

“This was no fluke,” Lynwood Coach Bill Lee said. “This was a back-yard game between neighborhood rivals. All our players knew about (Dominguez’s) rankings. But this was not the same team they played a month ago.”

Dominguez beat Lynwood, 80-60, on Jan. 18. Lynwood entered that game having lost five of its first seven games.

But Friday’s game belonged to Long Beach State-bound forward D’Cean Bryant, who had 15 points and 10 rebounds, and junior guard Chris Funderburk, who scored 14 points. The host Knights built a nine-point lead late in the third quarter and held on despite missing the front end of six one-plus-one free-throw situations in the closing minutes.

Lynwood features four underclassmen in its starting lineup, including 6-foot-7 sophomore Greg Lakey and juniors Sta’Fon Lawson and Dante Davis. They held highly recruited Tommy Prince of Dominguez to a season-low seven points on three for 17 shooting from the field.

“The score was not as close as it seemed,” Lee said. “We never doubted we could beat them. Our front line is imposing. But the first time we played them we were real inexperienced. Now we’re starting to come together.”

* Artesia football Coach Norm Flowers, who led the Pioneers to two Suburban League titles in seven seasons, has resigned. Flowers, who has a 3-year-old daughter and whose son Aaron is a sophomore quarterback at Utah State, said that spending additional time with his family was the determining factor. No replacement has been named.

Flowers guided Artesia (9-3) to a berth in the Southern Section Division VII quarterfinals before suffering an 82-62 loss to Bloomington. Artesia set a state record for most points scored by a losing team. The teams also set a state record for combined points.

Flowers, who has been coaching and teaching at Artesia for 21 years, coached the girls’ basketball team for five seasons and led the Pioneers to the Southern Section 2-A Division championship in 1983.

* Millikan High softball Coach Diane Lewis has been selected interim coach at Orange Coast College. Lewis, 29, led the Rams to Moore League titles in 1991, ’92 and ‘93, and compiled an 83-50-2 record in five seasons.

* The State CIF Federated Council has adopted the girls’ pole vault as a scoring event at the league, section and state level.

California, which became the first state to sponsor a girls’ pole vault exhibition at the state level last year, and Oregon are the only states to approve the event.

COMMUNITY COLLEGES

The Cerritos College men’s basketball team is ranked fourth in the state and third in Southern California.

The Falcons improved to 25-1 and 6-1 in South Coast Conference play with an 87-61 victory over Mt. San Antonio College on Saturday.

Wayne Allen scored 22 points and Darius Rutledge added 20. They had eight rebounds each. Eric Barnes and Kelly Hambrick scored 11 and 10, respectively.

* Cerritos College offensive lineman Ian McCutcheon, a J.C. Grid Wire All-American first-team selection who has signed with Arizona, headlines 15 Cerritos players bound for four-year universities.

Defensive back Richie Ashley and offensive lineman Naeem Mills of Long Beach, both J.C. Grid Wire honorable mention selections, are among 11 Viking players who have signed. Ashley is headed for San Diego State and Mills has signed with Kansas State.

Other signings for area community colleges include:

Cerritos--offensive linemen Dayman Adams (Idaho State), Ken DeWald (Western Michigan) and Will Napier (Montana State); defensive linemen Troy Antee (Oregon State), Eric Douglas (Missouri), Matt Nichols (Oregon) and Mark Shulist (Hawaii); defensive back Ramsey Alexander (Montana State) and Derrick Winston (Purdue); linebackers Keith Dykes (Northern Arizona), Keith Thomas (Boston) and Dusan Ancich (Fresno State), and running backs Charles Ephriam (Montana State) and Corey Peters (Utah State).

Compton--Defensive backs Blase Austin (Hawaii) and Deon Hampton (Chico State); linebacker Germel Ford (Chico State), and tight end Anthony Lock (Portland State).

Long Beach--Offensive linemen Keith Hopkins (Arkansas) and Greg Jones (Fresno State); defensive linemen Paulo Vito (Hawaii) and Art Maulupe (Wayne State); defensive backs Carl Marshall (Texas Tech) and Louis Peters (Montana State); linebackers DeMarco Ford (Fresno State) and Marlon Brisker (Toledo), and wide receiver Jeremy Calhoun (San Diego State).

THE LONG RUN

Nivaldho Filho of Brazil and Maria Trujillo of Marina were the men’s and women’s winners at the 14th Long Beach Marathon Sunday. Each received $8,000.

Filho, 34, covered the 26.2-mile course in 2 hours 18 minutes 59 seconds to beat Mexico’s Juan Samuel Lopez (2:20:21) and Juan Salvador Gonzalez (2:20:27).

Trujillo, 35, who set the course record of 2:30:50 in 1991, became the first woman to win twice at Long Beach, winning by almost four minutes in 2:43:26. Teresa Nightingale of Canada and Rhonda Davidson of Norwalk were second and third in 2:47:19 and 2:55:19, respectively. Jeanne Robinson of Long Beas was 10th in 3:10:54.

More than 6,500 runners participated in the marathon, half-marathon and other events, which included a wheelchair division, health walk, race walk, relays and a mini-marathon, a non-competitive run for youth.

Hyon Kang Edwards and Jill Newman were the winners of the half-marathon. Edwards won the men’s race in 1:08:32, followed by John Prather (1:10:31) and Chuck Mullane (1:10:54). Newman ran to victory in 1:22:44. Beverly Buss and Julie McKinney were second and third in 1:26:24 and 1:27:42. The wheelchair division was won by Raymond Stewart of Downey in 1:48:02.

The Long Beach Wilson High team of Jesse Barragan, Demond Todd, Paul Couvrey, Jaime Herrera and Mike Almquist was victorious in the high school five-person relay in 2:33. The Long Beach Poly team of Jackie Guesno, Erin O’Keefe, Josie Sepulveda, Joy Dilday and Roshandra Pettway won the girls’ division in 3:09.

BEACH BALL

Joe McNaull of Long Beach State has been selected the Big West Conference men’s basketball player of the week.

The 6-foot-10, 255-pound senior averaged 20 points and seven rebounds in leading the 49ers to victories over Nevada Las Vegas (74-73 in overtime), Nevada (67-64) and Utah State (62-50) last week.

McNaull, who had a season-high of 24 points against Utah State, leads the conference in shooting percentage at 66.7%.

Long Beach (11-6, 7-3) will put its four-game winning streak on the line in a road game tonight against the University of Pacific. On Saturday, the 49ers play at San Jose State.