LA City Section results first round

Demonstrating that the City Seeding Committee must be the smartest bunch of guys on the face of the planet, the City Section Boys' Championship Tournament got underway on Friday night and not surprisingly, all of the higher seeded teams won, which must mean the process of seeding these teams in these brackets works. Or it just means that the better team on a given night won. Whatever. . . we have the bracket below and some game details. Not much for some of the games, but hey, it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. Here's the bracket and the game details are listed below, such as they are. Of course, as usual, we have more on the Valley region teams than we do on the metropolitan region teams because that's what the papers cover, and unfortunately, with all of the time spent on Southern Section coverage, that's the best we can do in a limited amount of time (of course, we've got virtually unlimited space, because this is, after all, cyberspace, but time is a commodity of which we never have enough). Anyway, here are the brackets:

LA City Section Boys' Championship Tournament First round games February 18 7:30 p.m. *Higher Seed is Home Team			Quarterfinals Wednesday Feb. 23 Higher seed is home team	Semifinals Feb. 25	Finals March 3 @ The Great Western Forum 8:00 p.m.
No. 16 Eagle Rock 36	@	No. 1 Crenshaw 83	Palisades @ Crenshaw
No. 9 Monroe 41	@	No. 8 Palisades 55	Palisades @ Crenshaw
No. 12 Washington 67	@	No. 5 Fremont 74	Fremont @ Taft
No. 13 Sylmar 59	@	No. 4 Taft 65	Fremont @ Taft
No. 14 South Gate 42	@	No. 3 Fairfax 64	Carson @ Fairfax
No. 11 Dorsey 57	@	No. 6 Carson 59	Carson @ Fairfax
No. 10 Grant 43	@	No. 7 Cleveland 55	Cleveland @ Westchester
No. 15 Jordan 56	@	No. 2 Westchester 78	Cleveland @ Westchester

As you can see, the quarterfinals will be the Wednesday, February 23 at the higher seeded team's home site, which will be followed by the semifinals on Friday, February 25. The City Finals, in the City Championship are scheduled for March 3 at the Great Western Forum and the boys will get underway at 8:00 p.m. Admission Prices at Finals for the City Championships will be $6.00 for Student (Pre-Sale); General Admission $9, Reserved Seating $10, and Children (under 12) $3.

In the meantime, here are the details of the games shown above from Friday night's first round contests:

No. 1 Crenshaw 83, No. 16 Eagle Rock 36 --Tommy Johnson scored 30 points and had 14 rebounds and E.J. Harris added 16 points for the top-seeded Cougars at Crenshaw (17-2). Junior guard Alex Cabagnot led Eagle Rock (15-10) with 18 points.

No. 2 Westchester 78, No. 15 Jordan 56--Brandon Heath scored 20 points and Jason Breland had 14 points and 12 rebounds for the second-seeded Comets (20-6) at Westchester.

No. 3 Fairfax 64, No. 14 South Gate 42-- Ishmael Torres had 16 points and Jason Morrissette added 13 for the third-seeded Lions in the victory at Fairfax. The visiting Rams (15-12) got 11 points from senior guard Javier Vega but it wasn't enough as the No. 3 seeded Lions rolled to the first round win.

No. 4 Taft 65, No. 13 Sylmar 59--Taft survived 28 team fouls and a furious fourth quarter comeback by visiting Sylmar for a 65-59 victory in a city championship first round game. Sylmar (12-12), which was called for 21 fouls, cut Tafts' 12 point halftime lead to just three when Louis Darby (10 points) followed his own rebound with 32 seconds remaining. But Mustafa Asghari hit a pair of free throws and Gregg Guenther (12 points, 19 rebounds) added another to clinch the game for the Toreadors (20-2). Sylmar scoring; Williams 13, Ogarro 4, Morris 4, Valdez 12, Robinson 7, Slade 8, Darby 10, Lasly 1. Taft scoring: Gray 14, Guenther 12, J. Smith 4, McCoy 2, Ezevka 12, Melton 2, Asghari 7, Steve Smith 14. Sylmar--16 11 11 21--59; Taft 23 16 9 17--65

No. 5 Fremont 74, No. 12 Washington 67--Kenton Paulino scored 24 points and Mark Bradford had 16 as the fifth-seeded Pathfinders won at Fremont. No box or other details were available.

No. 6 Carson 59, No. 11 Dorsey 57--Marques Washington made a layup in traffic with 2.2 seconds left to give the Colts the victory at Carson. Twaine Waite scored 18 points for Carson, who outscored the Dons 17-11 in the fourth quarter. Keith Johnson finished with 12 points and Andre Johnson added 11 for the Colts (18-9). Dorsey scoring: Wiles 13, Wilson 12, Dix 10, Sims 7, Blake 5, MacAdoo 4, Good 4, Neal 2; Carson scoring: Waite 18, K. Johnson 13, A. Johnson 11, Washington 11, Fortson 4, Ibekewe 1, Peters 1. Score by quarters: Dorsey 18 14 14 11 --57; Carson 15 9 18 17--59.

No. 7 Cleveland 55, No. 10 Grant 43-- The Cavaliers went on a 17-0 run and rolled to a 55-43 victory Friday night in the first round of the City Championship playoffs at Cleveland High. Cleveland (19-7), seeded No. 7, forced seven turnovers in the third quarter after Grant made only six in the first half. After being held to two points in the first half, point guard Grant Pledger of the Cavaliers led the onslaught. Pledger scored 16 points and made most of his eight steals after halftime. After holding a 30-27 lead midway through the third quarter, the shell-shocked Lancers (9-17, 12 losses by forfeit) were outscored 22-2 before Mike Charleston's jumper made it 49-34 with 6:18 remaining. Pledger scored 12 of the 22 points during the run. Grant guard DeWayne Anderson said the Lancers suffered a breakdown on offense in the third quarter, when they scored only four points. For the Cavaliers, it was precisely the impression they wanted to make. Cleveland, which shared the West Valley League title with fourth-seeded Taft has won 12 of its last 13 games. Quenton Harvey finished with 14 points and six steals, Anthony Davis 12 points and 15 rebounds, and Jeston Thompson five points, 10 rebounds and four blocked shots for Cleveland. The Lancers were not intimidated by Cleveland's full-court pressure in the first half, when they opened up a 26-23 lead. Grant took the lead early in the second quarter and didn't trail the rest of the half. The Lancers were sparked by the rebounding of guard DeWayne Anderson and forward Mike Charleston. Grant scoring: Evans 8, Charleston 8, Edison 2, Anderson 10, Logan 10, Guevarra 5. Cleveland--Davis 12 and 15 rebounds, Haarvey 14 and 6 steals, Thompson 5 and 4 blocks and 10 rebounds, Pledger 18 and 8 steals, Mehrabani 4 and 7 assists, Bolden 2. Scoring by quarters: Grant 12 14 4 13--43; Cleveland 12 11 16 16--55.

No. 8 Palisades 53, No. 9 Monroe 41--Guard Ramall Goodrich led the Vikings with 21 points, including four 3-pointers in the fourth quarter as Monroe (19-7) got as close as eight points with 1:09 to play. Viking leading scorer Robert Palafox had just 12 points, half on 3-pointers. Alfredo Cuevas turned in five steals, four rebounds and three points. Robert Palafox also had and nine steals for the ninth-seeded Vikings (19-7) in a first-round loss at Palisades (18-7). Darnell Jones scored 21 points and Marko Mihailovic had 18 points for the Dolphins in the victory at Palisades. Scoring for Monroe: Savala 2, Cuevas 3, Williams 2, Palafox 12 and 9 steals, Goodrich 21, Rogers 1. Palisades: Mihalovic 16, Bianchi 3, Oliver 1, Jones 16, Wood 5, Czernin 3 an d7 assists, Eskridge 9 and 12 rebounds. Scoring by quarters: Monroe--10 10 5 16--41; Palisades--12 11 16 14--53. Monroe finishes out the year at 19-7; Palisades is 18-7 and will advance to the quarterfinals on Wednesday.