Ocean View headed to SoCal final Saturday

"Whenever the ball came out, I just got in position to rebound," Okwudibonye said. "The ball just found me, I guess. I don’t know. I guess I was active around the paint ... Coach was saying we needed to pick it up [on defense], and I think that’s what took the game over at that point."

Junior guard Anthony Brown added 16 points for Ocean View, which was down, 26-25 at halftime. But the Seahawks opened the second half on a 7-0 run, capped by a lay-up from Jones, to give the Seahawks a lead they’d never relinquish.

During the run, Canyon senior center Dan Galluccio was called for his fourth foul trying to draw a charge. Canyon Coach Nate Harrison didn’t like the call, and he was later called for a technical foul after arguing an Ocean View player had traveled.

"[Galluccio’s fourth foul] hurt us bad," Harrison said. "It was a tough call, one of those flop [or] charge, 50-50. They were just much bigger than us at that point, and we had a hard time rebounding after that. They went on a run, and their kids made some really tough shots.

"We knew we could play with them. Our kids were confident we could play with them. We’ve felt all year long that if we could hold teams in the 40s or 50s, that we were going to win games. That’s what we’ve been doing ... they went to 60 tonight and we weren’t good enough to go there with them. Congratulations to Coach Harris."

Harris will have less than two days to prepare his team for a Harvard-Westlake squad that has won 12 straight times.

"Harvard-Westlake is more like us, only I think they’re a little bigger," Harris said. "But almost everybody’s bigger than we are. That’s why Ryan’s job he did tonight was so impressive."

***In a CIF State Division II Southern California regional semifinal on the girls' side, Edison fell at top-ranked Mater Dei, 62-46, Thursday to end the Chargers' season.

Edison (25-6) actually had a 16-10 lead after the first quarter, but then Mater Dei (32-0), ranked No. 1 in the state by CalHiSports.com, started taking control.

Senior forward Kelly Peterson scored 12 to lead Edison, while sophomore Bonnie Samuelson and freshman Lauren Grego had 11 each.

Mater Dei sophomore guard Kaleena Lewis, named the Gatorade California Player of the Year earlier Thursday, had 20 points and seven rebounds.