Crenshaw rallies to win the City Section Division I boys’ basketball title
When it comes to City Section basketball championship banners, Crenshaw High is running out of space. The Cougars earned their 18th banner on Saturday by defeating Granada Hills, 65-45, in the Division I championship game at Cal State Dominguez Hills.
“We’ll just put it on the ceiling and make room,” Coach Ed Waters said.
Crenshaw (22-4) roared back in the third quarter after falling behind by nine points. Leading the comeback was guard Ramone Wagner, who scored nine points in the quarter and finished with 17 points.
“No panic,” Wagner said. “I was thinking we needed to play harder and pick up the intensity.”
Lamar Harris led Crenshaw with 19 points, including four dunks. Jesse Bannout had 13 points for Granada Hills (14-16).
Southern Section 2AA: A balanced offensive attack helped Ontario Colony defeat Villa Park, 74-70, at Honda Center.
Senior wing Rodrick McCobb led the Titans with 19 points, while Sedrick Altman added 16 and Jozelle Carter pitched in with 12. Colony (27-5) trailed Villa Park 55-53 after three quarters, but took control late in the fourth on a breakaway basket by McCobb and a second-chance basket by Altman to take a 68-64 lead with just over two minutes to play.
Villa Park (23-6) battled foul trouble in the fourth, losing Julien Franklin and Matthew Lanzone in the period as each picked up his fifth foul. Caleb Banuelos paced the Spartans with 20 points, and Myles Franklin added 16.
Southern Section 2A: Junior Dawson Baker accounted for more than half of his team’s points and nearly outscored the opponent by himself, collecting 25 points in Mission Viejo Capistrano Valley’s 41-31 win over Oxnard at Honda Center.
Both teams were offensively challenged in the first half, with the Cougars scoring 11 points to Oxnard’s nine. Capistrano Valley (25-6) led 6-1 through the first eight minutes as Oxnard missed all 10 of its field-goal attempts in the opening quarter.
Baker scored 10 points in the third as Capo progressed toward the d final 10-point margin.
Brycen Wight led Oxnard (27-4) with 11 points. Mason Johnson added nine for the Yellow Jackets.
Southern Section 3A: Twentynine Palms pulled out a 70-68 overtime victory over Santa Fe Springs St. Paul at Azusa Pacific. D’Shaun Barrett scored 29 points for Twentynine Palms.
Southern Section 5AA: Retirement sure looks good to Harvey Kitani, who spent 35 years coaching at Fairfax High before stepping down as a coach and teacher. But it isn’t really a retirement. He took over as head coach at Rolling Hills Prep this season, and on Saturday, Kitani won his first Southern Section championship when the Huskies (24-2) defeated Encino Holy Martyrs, 61-34.
Alex Garcia scored 20 points, Chris Koon 17 and J.T. Tan 14.
Devin Ugland contributed to this report.
Twitter: latsondheimer
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