Rally earns Crenshaw another City crown

When it comes to City Section basketball championship banners, Crenshaw High is running out of space. The Cougars earned their 18th Saturday by defeating Granada Hills, 65-45, in the Division I championship game at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

“We’ll just put it on the ceiling and make room,” Coach Ed Waters said.

Crenshaw (22-4) roared back in the third quarter after falling behind by nine points. Leading the comeback was guard Ramone Wagner, who scored nine points in the quarter and finished with 17.

“No panic,” Wagner said. “I was thinking we needed to play harder and pick up the intensity.”

Lamar Harris led Crenshaw with 19 points. Jesse Bannout scored 13 for Granada Hills (14-16).

Southern Section 2AA: A balanced offensive attack helped Ontario Colony defeat Villa Park, 74-70, at Honda Center. Senior wing Rodrick McCobb led the Titans with 19 points, while Sedrick Altman added 16. Colony (27-5) trailed Villa Park 55-53 after three quarters, but took control on a breakaway basket by McCobb and a second-chance basket by Altman to take a 6864 lead with just over two minutes to play.

Villa Park (23-6) battled foul trouble in the fourth, losing Julien Franklin and Matthew Lanzone. Caleb Banuelos paced the Spartans with 20 points.

Southern Section 2A: Junior Dawson Baker accounted for more than half of his team’s points, collecting 25 in Mission Viejo Capistrano Valley’s 41-31 win over Oxnard at Honda Center.

Both teams were offensively challenged in the first half, with the Cougars leading Oxnard, 11-9. Capistrano Valley (25-6) led 6-1 through the first eight minutes.

Brycen Wight led Oxnard (27-4) with 11 points.

Southern Section 3A: Twentynine Palms pulled out a 70-68 overtime victory over Santa Fe Springs St. Paul at Azusa Pacific. D’Shaun Barrett scored 29 points for Twentynine Palms.

Southern Section 5AA: Harvey Kitani, who spent 35 years coaching at Fairfax High before taking over at Rolling Hills Prep this season, won his first Southern Section championship when the Huskies (24-2) defeated Encino Holy Martyrs, 61-34. Alex Garcia scored 20 points, Chris Koon 17 and J.T. Tan 14.