Byrd’s 22 Lead to First in Ocean

Sterling Byrd scored 22 points as the Compton Centennial High boys’ basketball team clinched the Ocean League title with a 66-42 rout of El Segundo on Thursday night in Compton.

Darius Sanders had 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Gabriel Pruitt added 13 points for the Apaches (25-0, 14-0), No. 3 in The Times’ rankings.

Dashawn Strong and Jeramie Hopson each scored 17 points for No. 15 El Segundo (23-4, 12-2), which never led.

Centennial needed a big fourth quarter to win, 55-44, at El Segundo in the teams’ first meeting Jan. 19. This time, the Apaches used an 18-1 second-quarter run to take a 33-14 halftime lead.

Centennial put the game away with an 8-0 run to open the third quarter.

“Last time we played them, I missed every shot I took,” said Byrd, who missed all 10 shots from the floor and finished with three points in the teams’ previous meeting. “Tonight, my shots were falling.

“This was important because we haven’t been playing any good teams, and they are a good team. They are the kind of team we are going to face in the playoffs.”

--Steve Galluzzo

Villa Park 74, Orange El Modena 50--The No. 24 Spartans avenged their lone Century League loss, clinching the league title before a capacity crowd of 2,250 at Villa Park.

Brice Prather scored 10 of his 24 points in the first quarter, when Villa Park (24-3, 9-1) took a 20-15 lead. Sean Phaler came off the bench to score 11 second-quarter points and the Spartans led, 37-26, at the half. Villa Park hit all 10 of its first-half free-throw attempts.

Phaler finished with 14 points for the Spartans.

El Modena (16-11, 7-3), which defeated Villa Park, 60-57, in the team’s first meeting, got 14 points apiece from Jerard Rabb and Mike Diekmann.

--Tim Dermody

Pasadena 58, Pasadena Muir 55--Dino Wilburn scored seven of his 19 points in overtime for the No. 22 Bulldogs (22-4, 10-0) in a Pacific League victory over the No. 18 Mustangs (21-5, 6-4).

San Bernardino Cajon 90, San Bernardino 51--Donovan Morris set a school record by making all 16 of his free-throw attempts and finished with 37 points for the Cowboys (22-4, 10-0 San Andreas League).