South Huntington Beach second at national tournament

The South Huntington Beach Chargers reached the championship final of

the National Junior Basketball seventh-grade national tournament last

weekend, where they fell to Summerline, Nevada, 68-62.

The game was a repeat of last year’s semifinal, where Summerline used

a victory over South Huntington Beach as a springboard to its first

national title.

The Chargers, who finished the year 17-1, fell behind 14-4 but rallied to within 17-15 by the end of the first quarter. They trailed, 32-29, at

the half and 47-36 heading into the final period.

They were down by just three points in the final minute and had

possession of the ball, but a turnover thwarted their final comeback.

Taylor King scored 22 points and T.J. Lipold added 21 to lead the

Chargers.

The championship game was one of four the Chargers played over the

weekend at four different Orange County venues.

Lipold poured in 25 points, King scored 15 and Casey Becker added 10

in a tournament opening, 65-30, win over Yorba Linda. The Chargers then

whipped Irvine, 79-58, as King scored 23, Lipold had 20 and Becker and

Thomas Marcin each contributed 12. In the semifinal round the Chargers

defeated Palo Alto, 65-56, behind 22 points by King and 20 by Lipold.

The championship game appearance marked the end of NJB play for a

group of youngsters who started playing together in the third grade. Over

the past five years in All-Net Division competition they won three Blue

Division titles and made made two national semifinal appearances --

finishing third overall on both occasions, and won 90% of their games,

compiling a 55-5 record with 36 consecutive league wins.

Tim Golden, Dylan Bowermaster and Michael Hardwick also contributed to

the Chargers’ success.