Villa Park Puts Hurt on Colony

The difference between Southern Section Division II-AA and II-A was especially clear Monday night.

Villa Park, ranked No. 11 in the Southland by The Times, took a double-digit lead over No. 12 Ontario Colony midway through the first quarter and never looked back, cruising to an 86-69 victory in the featured game of the Martin Luther King Invitational at Santa Ana Century High.

The Spartans (14-3) came into the game ranked No. 4 in Division II-AA coaches’ poll behind Santa Ana Mater Dei, Compton Dominguez and Chino Hills Ayala, while Colony (17-2) was ranked first in Division II-A. The teams appeared evenly matched for the first five minutes, but Villa Park then reeled off 10 unanswered points for a 17-7 lead.

The Titans twice cut the lead to seven before Villa Park senior guard Riley Johnson scored seven of his season-high 26 points in the second quarter to help the Spartans stretch their halftime lead to 14 points. Villa Park scored the first six points of the third quarter to take a 44-24 lead.

“We have a hard division, especially with Mater Dei and Dominguez,” said junior guard Drew Viney, who scored 17 points. “We still have to come out in [the playoffs] and play the game we can play and just come out and win.”

Brandon Davis scored 26 points for the Titans.

-- Dan Arritt

Track and Field

Junior Terry Prentice of Pomona Diamond Ranch was the only double winner in the inaugural Run for the Dream Indoor Invitational at Save Mart Arena in Fresno in front of an announced crowd of 5,806.

Prentice opened up in the long jump with efforts of 22 feet 10 3/4 inches and 23-3 before going 24-0 for the third-best indoor mark in the nation this season.

Later, Prentice won a hotly contested 55-meter hurdles race in 7.55 to hold off Wil Smith of Fresno Sunnyside, who ran 7.58. Marquan Jackson of Crenshaw was third in 7.73.

Ashika Charan of Claremont, with all jumps over 40 feet, won the triple jump with a personal-best and nation-leading 40-11 1/2 . Kimarie Black of Long Beach Poly was second at 38-8 1/4 .

The Southland dominated the mile runs with Shannon Murikami of Saugus winning the girls’ race in 5 minutes 8.10 seconds and West Covina’s Danny Mercado just edging his twin brother, Diego, 4:28.67 to 4:28.92, in the boys’ race.

Junior Isaiah Green of Long Beach Poly, who was injured midway through last season, won the 55-meter dash in 6.47.

Defending state champion Scott Roth of Granite Bay won the pole vault at 16-10 and then had the bar moved to a national indoor record height of 17-6 3/4 , where he had two close misses before failing a third time.

-- Mike Kennedy