Harvey Leads Dons to Win Over Lynwood

Fresh legs and the steady hand of Bryan Harvey carried the Compton Dominguez boys’ basketball team to a 64-61 victory Wednesday night against visiting Lynwood in an emotionally charged San Gabriel Valley League game.

Nine players scored for the Dons, ranked fourth in the Southland by The Times, including a game-high 24 points by Harvey, a 6-foot-5 guard who has signed with Louisville.

“Our bench came up big,” Harvey said. “We’ve got a lot of guys who can play, more than four or five people.”

Lynwood, ranked No. 5, held a 50-46 lead heading into the fourth quarter, but the Dons followed with an 11-2 run. Harvey made two free throws to break a 57-57 tie with 2:46 remaining and two more with 15 seconds left to give the Dons (16-5, 6-1) their final three-point cushion.

Tensions rose at the end of the first half and again during the postgame handshake, when players, coaches and fans became aggressive alongside the court, prompting numerous police and security personnel to intervene.

Davon Jefferson had 20 points and 10 rebounds, and Seketoure Henry had 15 points and five assists for Lynwood (14-6, 6-1).

-- Dan Arritt

Mark Hall, a sophomore guard filling in for injured Justin Thomas, contributed 15 points, including a decisive three-point basket with 1:46 left, to propel No. 20 L.A. Loyola (17-6, 8-1) to a 70-63 upset victory over No. 8 North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake (18-3, 8-1) in a Mission League game at Harvard-Westlake.

Loyola opened up a 15-point lead with 2 1/2 minutes left in the third quarter, but Harvard-Westlake scored the final 11 points of the quarter. The Wolverines made the score 55-55 with 3:16 left on a three-point basket by Jon Jaques.

With 1:46 left and a two-point lead, Hall made his three-pointer and the Cubs never looked back and pulled into a first-place tie in league play. Jordan Wilkes and Buchi Awaji each scored 18 points for Loyola.

Alex Stepheson of Harvard-Westlake finished with 22 points and 13 rebounds, but he was only eight for 16 from the free-throw line. Ed White had 17 points for the Wolverines.

-- Eric Sondheimer

Girls’ Water Polo

Kami Craig, the only high school player on the U.S. team that won the 2005 FINA Junior Women’s World Championships on Sunday, has returned from Perth, Australia, in time to join Santa Barbara for the Southern California Championships.

The defending champion Dons (21-4) are seeded fourth for the 32-team tournament and open against Irvine Woodbridge at Corona del Mar, one of four pools that will be used in the event. All first-round games begin at 3 p.m. today. The championship game will be at 3 p.m. Saturday at Irvine’s William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Complex.

Top-seeded Santa Margarita (16-5 faces Huntington Beach Marina in one of two pools at Irvine. Second-seeded Newport Harbor (19-2) plays Mission Viejo Capistrano Valley in the first round at El Toro. Santa Barbara tournament champion Santa Ana Foothill (17-3) is seeded third and opens with Santa Monica at Irvine.

-- Lauren Peterson