Day four at Torrey Pines crowned the National Division champion, Fairfax of Los Angeles and saw two local teams battle.  While Torrey Pines proved they belonged in the National Division.

The Championship Game:  Redondo Union vs. Fairfax

The Sea Hawks led in the first half and Fairfax was lacking the one big time player to lean on but after the break senior Lorne Currie ’15 took over the game and led the Lions to the National Division title scoring a team-high 20 points.

Fairfax coach Harvey Kitani, who was the 2006 McDonald’s All-American head coach for the West team in San Diego, had another big night in San Diego, eight years later.

Kitani is also superstitious and on day three before the semifinal game he arrived at the gym at 9:00 am to watch Loyola (Los Angeles, CA) play Santa Monica (CA) in a consolation game so he had to arrive on championship day at 9:00 am to watch the first game of the day, Loyola vs. Bellevue (WA).

Fairfax won their first Holiday Classic championship title after losing to El Camino (Oceanside, CA) in the 2002 title game.  Fairfax is a perfect 10-0 on the season and now turns their attention to league play.

Redondo’s Billy Preston ’17 and Elijah Nesbit ‘16 were not at the game because they were ejected from the semifinal game vs. St. Patrick (Elizabeth, NJ), which likely made the difference in the ability for the Sea Hawks to win the hardware.

Local Teams

Torrey Pines went 3-1 while winning the consolation final over Lawndale (CA) 49-36.  Originally, Falcon coach John Olive was not going to put his team in the National Division.  But when the players heard that they would not play in the top bracket they told coach that they have been watching the tournament since they were ten years old and wanted to play in the National Division.  Clearly the team proved that they belonged in the top bracket.

 La Costa Canyon (Carlsbad, CA) played Foothills Christian (El Cajon, CA) for seventh place and points were at a premium.  The Knights prevailed 49-47 in double overtime while Arizona commit T.J. Leaf ’16 sat on the bench in street clothes because of an ankle injury in the first round game vs. Westchester (Los Angeles, CA).

National Division Day 4 Games:

13th Place

Bellevue def. Loyola 68-61 (not filmed)

11th Place

Windward def. Westchester 40-36

15th Place

Cantwell Sacred Hear def. Santa Monica 57-46 (not filmed)

Consolation Championship

Torrey Pines def. Lawndale 49-36

7th Place

Foothills Christian def. La Costa Canyon 49-47 (2 OT)

5th Place

Jefferson def. Prime Prep 79-72

3rd Place

St. Patrick def. Centennial 69-39 (not filmed)

Championship

Fairfax def. St. Patrick 56-51