CHAMINADE TOURNAMENT : Chaminade Stopped in Its Tracks by Simi Valley

Chaminade High paved an easy road for itself to the championship semifinals of its own tournament.

But once there, the Eagles ran head-on into Simi Valley.

Chaminade, which had only to beat undermanned Camp Kilpatrick to reach the semifinals, were jolted back to reality Friday night in an 87-53 loss.

Simi Valley (8-4) meets Fairfax, a 39-28 winner over Santa Monica, tonight at 7:30 p.m. for the tournament championship. Chaminade (5-5) plays Santa Monica at 6 p.m. for third place.

The Eagles, who drew a first-round bye before thumping Camp Kilpatrick by 45 points, hung in against Simi Valley for a quarter. Chaminade fell behind, 7-0, but rallied to tie the score, 9-9. Steve Carnes hit a three-point basket while falling out of bounds to give Simi Valley a 12-9 lead after one period.

“I thought we played a great first quarter,” Chaminade Coach Mike Lynn said. “After that, they just had too many horses.”

Chaminade was down, 18-16, early in the second period when Simi Valley went on a 16-3 run to close the half. Carnes, the only player remaining from Simi Valley’s 1987-88 Southern Section 4-A Division championship team, had seven points, including a three-point basket, to key the blitz.

“We got fatigued in the second quarter and they scored a whole bunch of points. That just took us out of it,” Lynn said. “We probably should have been much more deliberate.

“They had kids coming off the bench who were very good athletes. There was no drop-off when they came in.”

Carnes, suffering from the flu, led all scorers with 22 points and had seven rebounds. Mike Wawryk (16 points and eight rebounds), Kenny Hood (15 points and 10 rebounds) and Tim Joqua (13 points) also scored in double figures.

The Pioneers outrebounded Chaminade, 46-31, and held the Eagles to 30% field-goal shooting--22% in the first half.

Simi Valley shot 58% from the field.

“It’s about time,” Simi Valley Coach Dean Bradshaw said. “We’re a team with high expectations, but we’ve been disappointed with ourselves until the last couple of ball games. It’s weird. we could never pinpoint what was wrong.”

Mark Mirkovich led Chaminade with 16 points and seven rebounds, and Colin Havert added 15 points.

In another tournament game:

Granada Hills 65, Crossroads 48--Osiris Nalls scored 19 points to lead Granada Hills (7-6) into the consolation final today at 4:30 p.m. against Marshall, a 77-30 winner over Camp Kilpatrick.

Granada Hills led, 23-22, at halftime, but opened a nine-point margin after three periods before blowing out Crossroads with a 27-point fourth quarter. Adrian Sellers (12 points), Sagy Koren (11) and Aaron Lattimore (10) also scored in double figures.