Crenshaw Right at Home in Victory

History was with the Crenshaw boys’ basketball team in its Coliseum League finale Friday against Fremont, and the Cougars made it pay off.Money Brown had 21 points and fellow guard Marcus Williams added 17 for Crenshaw and the Cougars, ranked No. 25 by The Times, clinched second place in the Coliseum League with an 85-74 victory over No. 9 Fremont.

Crenshaw (19-7, 8-2 in league) has not lost two home games in a season since Willie West became coach in 1970. A home loss to Dorsey earlier this season was motivation enough for the Cougars Friday.

“We weren’t about to lose on our home court, in front of our home crowd,” said Onyekachi Ibekwe, Crenshaw’s 6-foot-7 senior captain, who had nine points and nine rebounds.

Fremont (20-5, 7-3) has not won at Crenshaw in Sam Sullivan’s 25 years as Fremont coach.

“Right now, they have our number. Plain and simple.” Sullivan said. “They are the big bullies on the block and they know how to steal our lunch money.”

Crenshaw led, 56-55, going into the fourth quarter but opened a 70-58 lead with five minutes left on a four-point play by Brown and a three-point play by Ibekwe.

Jumal Walls, a 6-8 senior center who was academically ineligible when Crenshaw defeated Fremont, 86-82, in the first round of league play, had 16 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks.

This is only the second time in West’s 32 seasons that Crenshaw has not won at least a share of a league title.

Steve Galluzzo

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L.A. Dorsey 90, L.A. Locke 71--Donald Wilson had 21 points as No. 11 Dorsey (17-5, 9-1) clinched its first Coliseum League title since 1995.

Kevin Lewis scored 33 points for host Locke.

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La Verne Damien 57, Chino Hills Ayala 54--John Hickey made two free throws with five seconds to play to complete a 10-0 run and win it for Damien (10-16, 3-7), which ended Ayala’s 30-game home winning streak.

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In girls’ basketball:

Palmdale 41, Lancaster Antelope Valley 33--Teiosha George matched her career high with 28 points and also had 10 rebounds for Palmdale (18-10, 8-2), which ended a 24-game Golden League winning streak by host Antelope Valley (24-3, 9-1).

George, a 6-3 junior center, made 12 of 18 shots and scored her team’s first 13 points.

Shaquina Mosley had 11 points and Laurie Hodges added eight for Antelope Valley, which had already clinched its third consecutive league title.

The Antelopes made only 14 of 41 shots and committed 17 turnovers.

Dave Desmond