Notre Dame Stays Close, Then Falls : Basketball: Knights play undefeated Bishop Montgomery to standoff before wilting in final quarter of La Canada tournament final, 62-51.

Notre Dame High Coach Chris Perez knew his team had a difficult task on its hands in facing Bishop Montgomery in the final of the La Canada tournament.

And for three quarters, his team was up to the challenge.

But decisive play by Bishop Montgomery in the fourth quarter enabled it to go on to post a 62-51 victory Wednesday night at La Canada High.

“This was an outstanding test for us tonight,” Perez said. “I think we could have executed better in the fourth quarter, but this tells people we won’t beat ourselves.”

The Knights had the score tied, 45-45, at the end of the third quarter.

With the exception of a one-point victory over Muir, Bishop Montgomery (9-0) had routed all of its previous opponents.

But Notre Dame (5-5) showed early it was not going to roll over.

Brett Henry made two three-point baskets in the first quarter to spur Notre Dame a 16-13 lead.

From there, the teams engaged in a nip-and-tuck battle with neither squad leading by more than four points.

In the fourth quarter, however, tournament most valuable player Michael Johnson scored nine of his game-high 16 points.

Not helping matters for Notre Dame was a dry spell in which it went nearly five minutes without scoring.

Chris Forde ended the drought with a pair of free throws, but by then, Bishop Montgomery led, 59-51.

Notre Dame’s Ryan Bowne, who scored nine points and tied a tournament record with 16 three-pointers, said, “This game came down to rebounding.

“They hit the boards hard and if you don’t keep athletic teams off the boards, you’re going to lose.”

La Canada 61, Alemany 60--Matt Moore hit two free throws for the Spartans with 23 seconds remaining, and two desperation shots by Alemany missed as time wound down in the third-place game.

Danny Bush scored 30 points for the Spartans (8-4) and had seven rebounds. Moore finished with 12 points.

Adrian Pantoja of Alemany (7-5) finished with 24 points and 11 rebounds.

Muir 78, St. Francis 42--Anthony Johnson scored 17 points for the Knights (3-6) in the fifth-place game.

Ricky Maiden scored 16 points for Muir (6-5).

Moorpark 59, Village Christian 46--Sophomore center Kevin Lawrence had 13 points, 13 rebounds and seven blocked shots for the Musketeers (9-6) in the seventh-place game. Keith Donahue scored seven of his 15 points in the third quarter for Moorpar.