Huntington Park Impressive In Own Tournament
Huntington Park Spartans 49, Banning Pilots 39By Dave Keefer
Host Huntington Park trailed by 5 points midway through the second quarter but rallied to take charge thereafter in gaining a 49-39 win in pool play over Banning in the Huntington Park Winter Tournament on Thursday.
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Both teams had early leads in a low scoring first quarter that ended at 7-7. Huntington Park scored to open the 2nd quarter on a putback by Javonntie Jackson, then Banning ran off 7 straight points, ending with a three-pointer by Eduardo Barrera to make it 14-9. They still led by five, 16-11, after a fastbreak layup by Barrera.
Then the Spartans went to work.
Jesse Palomera scored 8 points in a 12-2 Huntington Park run that gave his team a 23-18 lead at the halftime break. The last two points came when Palomera took an inbounds pass with 6 seconds remaining on the clock and went coast to coast to score just before the buzzer.
Deon Preston got a putback for Banning to open the 3rd quarter but Huntington Park soon had a double digit lead after a three-pointer by David Jeronimo and nice dish from Palomera to Ralph Cervantes made it 30-20 midway through the quarter.
Osckar Reyes hit a three for the Pilots to make it 30-23 and they soon got closer at 30-25, but Huntington Park never let Banning get that close again. Palomera closed out the 3rd quarter for Huntington Park by nailing a jumper to make it 36-27 going into the final frame.
Banning struggled to keep the deficit from reaching double-digits the rest of the way. Preston connected on a three to make it 38-30 and Barrera hit a jumper to make it 42-33. But Palomera got a steal and layup at the 1:55 mark to give Huntington Park a double-digit lead of 44-33 and pretty much sealed the outcome.
Banning managed to cut the margin to eight at 46-38, but Jeronimo hit both ends of a 1-and-1 with 39 seconds left to make it 48-38, and the game soon ended with a final score of 49-39.
Palomera led Huntington Park scorers with 12 points and played an excellent floor game in leading his team to victory. Jeronimo and Kevin Corona each added 8 points for the Spartans. Banning was led by Reyes and Barrera who scored 12 and 10 points respectively.
Score by Quarters:
Banning-------------07-11-10-11 = 39
Huntington Park---07-16-13-13 = 49
Banning (39): 33-Austin Morton 5, 12-Deon Preston 5, 10-Eduardo Barrera 10, 3-Iakopo Moaaliitele 5, 15-Michael Wafer 2, 4-Osckar Reyes 12.
Huntington Park (49): 12-Ralph Cervantes 6, 2-David Jeronimo 8, 3-Adan Vivanco 2, 11-Richard Rico 2, 24-Jesse Palomera 12, 25-Jerardo Pina 4, 31-Rogclio Ferrer 4, 35-Javonntie Jackson 3, 42-Kevin Corona 8.
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