South Bay : NIGHT MOVES

A financial squeeze is threatening a late-night youth basketball program in Redondo Beach two months after it began.

Since June, more than 100 teen-agers have spent their Friday nights shooting hoops, listening to music and enjoying free refreshments. But the program is running out of money, and organizers say if they don’t find more sponsors soon the kids will be forced out of the gym at Aviation High School.

“We’ve got three more weeks, then it’s over,” said Mike Gervais, the youth coordinator for the South Bay Coalition, the Hermosa Beach-based substance abuse prevention organization that co-sponsors the games. “We gave the kids an alternative to partying and it worked,” he said. “It would be a shame to take it away from them now.”