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Boys’ Basketball: Seahawks open tourney with rout

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The Ocean View High boys’ basketball team played the opening game of its own Jim Harris Memorial Tournament of Champions on Monday afternoon and, at the same time, recorded its first victory of the 2012-13 season.

Ocean View had little trouble with South Gate and cruised to an 83-42 victory. The Seahawks (1-1) took control early, played strong defensively, went to the glass hard and got their transition game going, which they parlayed into easy baskets. They also were able to substitute freely, and nine players reached the scoring column.

Ocean View scored the first five points of the game, led by 18 (29-11) after one quarter, and held a 57-23 lead at the half. They reached their biggest lead of the game, 50 points, 75-25, with 2:13 left in the third quarter.

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“For this team, our focus is on defense and rebounding, and I thought we did both pretty well today,” Ocean View Coach Tim Walsh said. “I thought our decision-making was better, and we rebounded a lot better than we did in the Dana Hills game.”

Ocean View started its season Nov. 24 with a 67-62 loss to Dana Hills, but the outcome Monday was never in doubt.

Nine Seahawks hit the scoring column led by sophomore guard Kendall Small, who had a game-high 21 points to go along with seven steals. Small also was the game’s top scorer with 27 points and also had seven steals in the Nov. 24 loss to Dana Hills.

Sophomore forward Tyler Burch scored 18 points and junior forward Dillon Reise scored 13 points and collected nine rebounds. Senior guard Josh Mishler had eight assists including six in the first half.

The Tournament of Champions continues with championship and consolation bracket action at 3 p.m. both Thursday and Friday. Consolation and championship placement games are Saturday starting at 9 a.m..

Saturday’s games schedule is a follows: 15th-place game (9 a.m.); 13th place (10:30 a.m.); 11th place (noon); 9th-place (1:30 p.m.); seventh place (3 p.m.); fifth place (4:30 p.m.); third place (6 p.m.); championship game (7:30 p.m.).

Teams contending for the tournament title are: Ocean View, South Gate, Mater Dei, John Glenn, Westminster, Warren, West Valley, Crespi, Lynwood, Compton, JSerra, Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies, Clovis West, Verdugo Hills, Verbum Dei, and Dominguez.

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Brethren Christian: The Warriors launch their season Thursday in Arizona against Valley Christian of Arizona at the Gilbert Christian Tournament.

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Edison: The Chargers opened their season with a first-round game Tuesday at the Corona del Mar Beach Bash tournament. They held a one-point halftime lead on Tustin but the Tillers pulled away in the second half to a 58-39 victory.

Senior guard Jake Haar and sophomore forward AJ Garrity scored 11 points each for Edison, which continues tournament play through Saturday .

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Fountain Valley: The Barons picked up their seventh victory in eight starts Tuesday by defeating St. Paul, 68-53, in a second-round game at the Valley Christian tournament in Cerritos. Senior guard Josh Armstrong netted a game-high 25 points and senior forward Tanner Trounce scored 15 for the Barons.

Fountain Valley began tournament play Monday and posted an 82-63 win over Whittier Christian. Armstrong turned in an outstanding performance with 30 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists. Trouncehit a trio of three-point shots and finished with 13 points and six rebounds, and senior center Jackson Gatlin’s strong effort included 10 points, six rebounds and nine blocked shots.

“We again controlled the boards and got out on the break,” Fountain Valley Coach Roger Holmes said. “We are pretty good in the open court and took advantage of that, especially in the second quarter.”

Fountain Valley was coming off a third-place finish at the 24-team Godinez tournament. The Barons went 4-1, defeating Loara (69-57), Century (72-35), Western (81-45) and Cypress (60-40, third-place game). Their loss was to El Toro (75-70).

Armstrong was named to the Godinez all-tournament team.

“We played well the whole week,” Holmes said. “Our team play and rebounding were the keys for us in the games at Godinez. It was a real challenge in playing five games in five days, but we were physically ready for it and performed at a pretty high level all week.”

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Huntington Beach: The Oilers completed their first week of the new season Saturday by winning their final three games to claim the consolation championship at the El Modena-Canyon Kickoff Classic.

Huntington went 3-1 at the event. In the Oilers’ opener, senior forward Harley Ruder scored 17 points in limited playing time but they fell, 70-54, to Santa Margarita. They used a balanced attack in their next outing and bounced back from the first-round loss with a 72-53 win over Valley View of Moreno Valley. Ruder and junior guard Ryan Morrissey both scored 16 points, sophomore forward Grant Vis had 10 points, senior guard Andrew TenBrink scored nine and junior guard Mason Luna scored eight.

Ruder had 18 points, Morrissey 15, Luna 14, and TenBrink nine points, to accounting for the scoring for the Oilers, who next defeated Valencia of Placentia, 55-48. In the consolation championship game, the Oilers downed co-host El Modena, 44-37. Ruder, who went on to be named to the all-tournament team, led the scoring with 13 points.

“I was really proud of how the guys battled this week,” Huntington Coach Fabian Luna said. “We are two to three weeks away from being where I think we will be. That is what is exciting for us as a team.”

Huntington starts play Monday at the Charlie Wilkins Memorial Basketball Classic. The Oilers play Torrance at 4:30 p.m. at Westminster High.

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Marina: The Vikings finished play Saturday at the Cerritos Invitational and defeated Bell, 40-33. Sophomore guard Greg Fronek scored 15 points and senior forward Casey Hayes 11 points as the Vikings closed out the tournament with three-straight wins.

Following a season-opening, 77-48 loss at the tournament to Gahr of Cerritos, Marina knocked off Citrus Valley of Redlands (55-33), Lakewood (40-29) and Bell, in succession. Sophomore guard Gabe Copper scored 12 points and Hayes had 10 in the win against Citrus Valley. Copper and Fronek scored 14 and 10 points, respectively, in the win over Lakewood.

The Vikings begin play Monday at the La Canada Tournament.

michael.sciacca@latimes.com

Twitter: @MikeSciacca

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