Vasquez Scores 44 Points but L.A. Baptist Falls

Frank Vasquez of L.A. Baptist High put on an outside shooting clinic while scoring a career-high 44 points in the championship game of the L.A. Baptist boys’ basketball tournament on Saturday night.

But the Knights’ inability to keep Brentwood off the offensive boards proved costly in a 82-75 defeat.

L.A. Baptist (5-6) had trimmed a 65-53 deficit with five minutes left in the game to 73-70 with 1:01 remaining on a pair of Vasquez free throws. But Brentwood scored four points in the final minute after coming up with the offensive rebounds on two missed foul shots.

Brentwood led, 74-70, with 57 seconds left when Jesse Bronner was fouled after rebounding a missed free throw by teammate Steve Young.

Bronner sank both foul shots to give Brentwood (10-2) a 76-70 advantage.

The Eagles were still clinging to that lead with 32 seconds left when Jon Praw missed two free throws, but center Sidney Miller got the rebound after the second miss and scored to give Brentwood a 78-70 advantage.

“They just outplayed us,” said Vasquez, who also had eight steals. “They were just beating us on the boards all night.”

Vasquez, a 5-foot-10 senior, scored 19 of his L.A. Baptist’s 24 points in the fourth quarter, including 10 of the Knights’ last 12.

He was 13 of 25 from the field, including nine of 18 from three-point range.

“I was kind of surprised to score that much,” he said. “I just came out here to have a good game. I knew I had to step it up though when some of the other guys were struggling.”

Fillmore 71, Alemany 69--Jesus Jasso made a layup with 1:10 left to give the Flashes a 70-69 advantage and Dago Pantosa added a free throw with 35 seconds remaining in the third-place game.

Jasso scored 26 points for Fillmore (9-4), Pantosa had 16 and Mario Galvez had 14.

Alex Valasquez scored 16 points for Alemany (6-6), which played for the last shot after Pantosa’s free throw before turning the ball over with two seconds left.

Carpinteria 59, Paraclete 54--Chris Redfield hit a three-point shot with 1:01 left to break a 54-54 tie in the fifth-place game.

Redfield had 12 points for the Warriors (6-5).

Glenn Jones and Dave Brown each had 13 points for Paraclete (1-8).

St. Bonaventure 73, St. Genevieve 43--Anthony Duplessie scored 21 points to help the Seraphs (8-5) to their second victory of the season over the Valiants in the seventh-place game.

Michael Emald scored 14 points for St. Bonaventure.