Long Beach Poly holds off Compton, 70-68

With 19 Southern Section basketball championships, Long Beach Poly isn’t about to surrender its spot as the team to beat in the Moore League without a fight, and Compton found that out in a league game that went down to the final second Wednesday night.

Poly had the ball with 2.8 seconds left and a two-point lead. Compton forced a turnover and took possession under its basket with 0.9 of a second left. Robert Lewis got the ball and put up a shot that bounced off the rim. Poly (12-6, 3-0) came away with a 70-68 victory.

“We’re still Poly,” said Coach Shelton Diggs, who’s filling in for one season while Sharrief Metoyer serves a one-year suspension for playing an ineligible player last year. “Nobody is going to come into our gym and beat us.”

Senior guard Kameron Murrell scored 25 points, making five three-pointers and contributing key baskets after Compton (13-4, 2-1) rallied to take the lead in the third and fourth quarters.

“He came through with some big threes,” Diggs said. “Every time he shoots, I expect it to go in.”

Junior guard K.J. Feagin finished with 16 points and made four consecutive free throws in the final 24 seconds. Chris Sullivan had 15 points.

Iziahiah Sweeney had 21 points for Compton, including a four-point play with 13 seconds left that cut Poly’s lead to 68-66.

Both teams are candidates for the Southern Section’s new Open Division, which is headed by unbeaten Santa Ana Mater Dei. The Monarchs got a little scare Wednesday, trailing at halftime to Bellflower St. John Bosco by seven points before coming away with a 71-62 Trinity League victory.

Stanley Johnson had 21 points for Mater Dei (17-0). Daniel Hamilton led St. John Bosco with 22 points.

eric.sondheimer@latimes.com