South Boys Rally to Beat Torrance

Although he often was off-balance and double- or triple-teamed, Torrance guard Michael Dean kept shooting the ball against South Torrance Wednesday night.

But Dean, a 6-foot senior, finally ran out of gas as South Torrance rallied for a 68-60 victory over the host Tartars Wednesday night in the final of the Torrance Holiday Classic.

Dean finished with 34 points and 13 rebounds.

“No matter what you do he’s going to get his 30 points,” South center Kyle McIntosh said. “We just had to make sure that we kept him from getting more.”

With Jimmy Williamson limiting Dean to two fourth-quarter baskets, Spencer Mercer scored off a back-door pass from Williamson to break a 60-60 tie with two minutes three seconds to play. The Spartans also made six of nine free throws and held the Tartars scoreless for the final 3:30 to secure their 11th victory in a row.

South, which won the Damien tournament last week, is 11-1.

Williamson, a 5-10 senior guard, had 20 points and nine assists and was the tournament’s most valuable player.

McIntosh, a 6-10 senior, added 28 points and nine rebounds and was also named to the all-tournament team.

Williamson and McIntosh combined for 14 of South’s first 16 points in the fourth quarter to help the Spartans rally from a nine-point third-quarter deficit.

South trailed, 49-44, entering the fourth quarter, but Williamson and McIntosh helped South take the lead during a 55-second span to start the quarter.

Williamson converted a three-point play and made a three-point basket from the top of the key to cut the deficit to 51-50. McIntosh put the Spartans ahead on a left-handed layup with 7:05 to play.

Dean, who had 54 points in a nonleague game against Morningside and 39 in a semifinal victory against West Torrance, had 105 points in three tournament games and is averaging 37.6.

“He was on fire,” Williamson said. “He was killing us. He was shooting so fast, we were just hoping he would cool off.”

It didn’t look like he would.

Dean had 20 first-half points and 31 points through three quarters as the Tartars extended a 28-25 halftime lead to 39-30 midway through the third quarter.

“I was just so tired, I couldn’t shoot anymore,” Dean said.

Redondo 73, West Torrance 64 (OT)--Tremaine Mayeaux scored eight of his 12 points in overtime to lift the Sea Hawks (8-6) in the third-place game.

The 6-foot-2 freshman guard made four free throws to spark a 12-0 Redondo run to open the overtime.

Mayeaux scored the first points of the overtime on a breakaway layup to give Redondo the lead for good, 63-61.

Doug Francis made the front end of a one and one with 27 seconds left in regulation to tie the score, 61-61.

Robert Goree had given West (3-9) a one-point advantage 16 seconds earlier on a three-point basket.

Dan Hyde had 16 points for Redondo (8-6).

Virgil Patterson finished with a game-high 27 points, including 20 in the second half, and Lionel Wood added 15 for West.

Hyde and Patterson were selected to the all-tournament team.