Eagle Rock wins City Section Division II boys’ basketball title

When his players were presented with the awards for winning the City Section Division II boys’ basketball championship with a 53-49 win over South Gate in Narbonne on Thursday night, Eagle Rock coach Christian Dunbar was asked if it was his most satisfying title after the Victory was two earlier in his career.

“It is,” he said.

The Eagles (24-5) overcame injuries that might have held others back, like the loss of their star player, guard Gavin Gonzales, on December 19 to a cruciate ligament tear. They have won 14 games in a row.

“It’s not an individual. We play together as a team,” said senior Benicio Curiel, who scored 15 points and made four straight free throws in the fourth quarter to prevent a South Gate comeback.

Free throw shooting in the fourth quarter was the difference. South Gate made two out of 10 and Eagle Rock was nine out of 13.

Eagle Rock received strong performances from two improving sophomores. Santino Leone scored 11 points and Max Yutan added nine points.

“They came out big,” Dunbar said of his sophomore contributors. “It was nice to see. They have improved so much over the season.”

The Eagles also received contributions from a few football players, led by All-City linebacker Brooklyn Pasten.

“You brought that toughness to our basketball team,” Dunbar said.

South Gate, seeking their first City title, received 15 points from Jonathan Tedtautau.

Basketball for girls

Vaughn 69, Washington Prep 37: The No. 2-seeded Tigers (20-5) went on a 38-5 run after falling 32-31 in the third quarter and losing 4:01 to go to claim their second City Section championship win and take the Division III title at Narbonne.

Junior point guard Andrea Cervantes scored 22 points and led a trap defense that produced 32 turnovers. Yamileth Ferreira made six threes to finish with 22 points. Freshman Hellen Cervantes added 10 points.

Juju Lucien scored 13 points for Washington Prep, the No. 1 seed.

boys football

Orange Lutherans 3, Littlerock 0: The Lancers received two goals from Jodi Pineda to win the Division 4 championship in the snow at Littlerock.

Quartz Hill 3, Los Alamitos 2: Quartz Hill won the Division 3 championship.

baseball

Orange Lutherans 12, Hamilton (Arizona) 5: Freshman Josiah Hartshorn had three RBIs and Derek Curiel contributed two doubles to a win in Arizona.

La Salle 2, St. Paul 1: Travis Ortega had the game-winning goal for La Salle.

Sierra Canyon 2, Thousand Oaks 1: Three pitchers combined on a four-hitter for 4-0 Sierra Canyon.