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Basketball Compton

CIF Basketball: Compton Powers Past Lynwood

The Compton boys’ basketball team had a pretty simple game plan for its first round CIF Southern Section Division 2AA playoff game against Lynwood.

“We were bigger than them,” said center Jabari Steward. “So why not throw it inside and score layups?”

That’s exactly what Compton did for 32 minutes, passing their way through the Knights’ zone defense and feeding Steward and Cameron Denson down low in a 68-61 win.

“We watched a lot of film and we saw the gaps in their zone,” said Compton coach Tony Thomas. “We just needed our guards to be patient and they were.”

Steward finished with a game-high 23 points and 20 rebounds, while Denson added 13 points. Compton’s most reliable shooter, Danny Beltran, added four 3-pointers in a 16-point effort. Senior Joshua Jones Jr. had 17 points for Lynwood, while Jaren Johnson had 18 points.

Compton will travel to ML King on Tuesday for a second round game.

 

Mike Guardabascio
An LBC native, Mike Guardabascio has been covering Long Beach sports professionally for 13 years, with his work published in dozens of Southern California magazines and newspapers. He's won numerous awards for his writing as well as the CIF Southern Section’s Champion For Character Award, and is the author of three books about Long Beach history.
http://The562.org