Tonight's LA-area tourney results

Larry Doyle Orange County Championship

Villa Park 61, Santa Margarita 50

The anticipation of an exciting game brought many fans and players who played earlier in the day back to Marina High School for tonight's championship game. Villa Park and Santa Margarita had last played each other in the February 2009 Nike Extravaganza at Mater Dei High School, where VP saw a three-point lead at halftime that day turn into a three-point loss, 69-66. Melissa Zornig for SM scored 30 of her game high 33 points in the second half.

Tonight's game started off strong for SM, as they stormed out to a 11-4 lead early in the first quarter. However, VP was able to turn up the tempo and get their own run of 11-2, and closed out the first quarter with a 15-13 lead.

The second quarter started similarly to the first quarter for SM, as they outscored VP 10-3 to take a 23-18 lead, and held a 29-22 lead with about a minute and a half left in the second quarter. That's when VP moved into another gear. They closed out the quarter on a 6-2 run to trail at the half 31-28.

The tempo and pace went into an even higher gear in the third quarter, and SM had no answers. VP outscored SM 18-4 in the third quarter to take a 46-35 lead after three periods. VP increased the lead to 56-41 about halfway thru the final stanza, and SM couldnt make a comeback.

MVP for the tournament was University of San Diego recruit Nicole Ballesteros, who had 19 points in the championship game. However, the most outstanding player of the night was VP's Shomari McCorkle, who had 18 points and 12 rebounds. She also put on a tremendous show, shutting down SM star player Meliisa Zornig by holding her to four points in the first half and 14 points for the entire game. Most of the points Zornig scored tonight were in the fourth quarter, and after VP had built up its lead of 15 points. This was the second straight game that McCorkle was assigned the task of guarding the star scorer. In the semifinals on Tuesday night against San Clemente, she held USC recruit Cassie Harberts to 16 points and only four field goals.

McCorkle is supposedly a Westmount College of Santa Barbara recruit and it looks like Westmount got a very good player for the 2010 season. Madison McKenney, a UC Bakersfield 2010 recruit led SM tonite with 23 points - 17 of those coming in the first half.

The third-place game was won by San Clemente, 62-48 over Sonora HS of La Habra.

- IM in OC

Beverly Hills/Harvard-Westlake Tournament

Harvard-Westlake 70, Inglewood 66

The game started off evenly, with both teams taking it to the basket at will. But HW stepped up the defense and built a five-point lead, which they kept through about three fourths of the second quarter, when they went on a run. They lead 43-31 at the half, which was also helped by the fact that they made 14-17 free throws, and capitalized on Inglewood turnovers.

HW grew the lead by as much as 16 points before Inglewood woke up mid-way through the third quarter and went on a 20-4 run, tying the game at 55 slightly into the fourth quarter. HW went up by six points again a few minutes later, and Inglewood could never catch all the way up.

In the other semifinal, Alemany beat El Camino, and I'm sorry I don't have a score.

Tomorrow night's championship game - Harvard-Westlake vs. Alemany - will be 7:30 p.m. at Harvard-Westlake High School. The third-place game, featuring Inglewood and El Camino, will be 7:30 p.m. at Beverly Hills High School.