Compton Is 71-57 Loser in II-AA Final

Steve Pearce and the Santa Margarita “Blue Squad” of seldom-used players weren’t about to let Eagle starters forget what happened the last time in the Bren Center at UC Irvine.

A month ago, then top-ranked Santa Margarita limped into a Saturday afternoon showcase with Servite, shot poorly in the arena setting and left three-point losers.

Pearce had something to say about that just as Thursday night’s CIF Southern Section Division II-AA game against Compton started.

“He stepped up to me and said, ‘Not again, man. Not again,”’ guard Ryan Forehan-Kelly said. “We just couldn’t let them down.”

Forehan-Kelly scored 15 points and guard Craig Rice had 15 points and 10 rebounds to lead Santa Margarita to its third Southern Section title of the 1990s with a 71-57 victory over Compton.

“This is a special team,” Coach Jerry DeBusk said, brushing off last month’s defeat as just “a bump in the road.”

“When they were freshmen they were 26-0,” DeBusk said. “We won a CIF title when they were sophomores and I knew then that they were special. What they did tonight against a quality team like Compton . . . it’s the best.”

Compton center David Hamilton, wounded in a drive-by shooting in which a passenger in the car he was driving was killed Tuesday, scored 27 points.

DIVISION V-A

Palos Verdes Estates Rolling Hills Prep 52, Santa Barbara Laguna Blanca 43--Rolling Hills Prep (18-3) built a 14-point lead at the end of the third quarter at UC Irvine Thursday and was never threatened after that. Joey Perry finished with 14 points. David Cochran led Laguna Blanca (18-5) with 15 points.