Peace Helps Beat Bishop Amat
Bishop Montgomery may have lost two-time Times’ Player of the Year Noelle Quinn to graduation, but Nykia Peace stepped up Thursday to lead the No. 23 Knights to a 52-47 Del Rey League victory over No. 6 La Puente Bishop Amat at Edgewood Middle School in West Covina.
Peace scored 22 points, had six assists and four steals. She scored five points during a 15-0 run in the second and third quarters that gave four-time defending league champion Bishop Montgomery (13-6, 3-0) a 32-19 lead.
The Lancers (18-3, 2-1) came back, pulling into a 41-41 tie a minute into the fourth quarter behind Erin Myrick and Jessica Carrera. Tied at 43 apiece, Bishop Montgomery’s Roney Friend scored from 15 feet, and Peace scored from 17 feet for what proved to be an insurmountable 49-45 lead with 2:27 left.
“We missed too many opportunities inside, but Peace stepped up to win the game,” said Richard Wiard. “She made the shot or the she created the pass.”
Chino Hills Ayala’s 70-game league winning streak ended Wednesday when Diamond Bar junior Kelly Kawai came off the bench to make an eight-footer with 6.1 seconds left for a 51-50 Sierra League victory.
The points were Kawai’s only in the game as Diamond Bar (10-10, 4-0) rallied from a 41-30 deficit late in the third quarter for its fifth victory in a row. Ayala falls to 10-9, 3-1.
Ayala’s winning streak, the eighth-longest in Southern Section history, dated to 1997. Diamond Bar’s 55-game league winning streak was ended by Ayala in 1997.
Martin Henderson
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Boys’ Basketball
Bellflower defeated Lakewood Artesia for the first time in 15 years on Friday. The Buccaneers won, 42-40, when Dionte Delouth grabbed an offensive rebound and scored with one second left in the Suburban League game.
Bellflower can take a big step toward ending another long streak when it plays tonight at Lakewood Mayfair. The Buccaneers (15-4, 5-0) have not won a league title since 1978, but can take sole possession of first place with a victory over Mayfair (16-3, 5-0), ranked No. 25 in the Southland by The Times.
Dan Arritt
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Football
Jeff Engilman, who guided Sylmar High to City championships in 1992 and 1994 and spent 17 years as football coach, has resigned and will be replaced by assistant London Woodfin, a former Sylmar and UCLA defensive lineman. Engilman, 53, said he wants to take a year off from coaching and may return at another level or at a Southern Section school.... Beau Davis, the All-City Section quarterback from Venice, has committed to Nebraska.
Eric Sondheimer
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Boys’ Soccer
Woodland Hills El Camino Real brought a rare two-game losing streak in West Valley League play to a resounding halt on Wednesday when it defeated previously unbeaten Chatsworth, 4-0.
El Camino Real, which won City Section titles in 1999, 2000 and 2002, posted an 8-1-3 nonleague record. But the Conquistadores were beaten by Reseda Cleveland, 4-1, and Lake Balboa Birmingham, 2-1, in their first two league games last week.
That wasn’t the case against Chatsworth (11-1-3, 1-1-1) as El Camino Real sophomore Peter Saatjian scored two goals and senior teammates Peter Cox and Ivan Leon each had one.
John Ortega
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Miscellany
Cynthia Barboza of Long Beach Wilson has been selected Gatorade’s National High School Girls’ Volleyball player of the year. It is the first time a junior has received this honor.
A middle blocker, she has been invited to train with the U.S. National team in preparation for the Summer Olympics in Athens.
Bob Rohwer
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The Southern Section Council passed an emergency regulation Thursday, shortening the girls’ golf season next fall by 1 1/2 days.
Commissioner Jim Staunton said the move, which ends the regular season on Nov. 3, would allow the section time to complete individual and team championships before the Southern California Golf Assn. and state finals take place.
The latter two have been moved up a week to Nov. 15 and 16, respectively, in order not to conflict with a major national women’s tournament in Florida.
The council also voiced support for two state bylaw changes that will come up for vote at the next State Federated Council meeting on Feb. 6-7:
* A basketball mercy rule calling for a running clock to begin at the end of the third quarter, or any point thereafter, if there is a point differential of 40 or more and for the running clock to continue thereafter regardless of the score.
* Teams caught practicing on declared days “of respite” will be penalized with the loss of twice as many regularly scheduled practices per violation.
-- Paul McLeod
