Orange County boys basketball highlights, final scores for Thursday, Dec. 11

ELITE 8 TOURNAMENT

CREAN LUTHERAN 53, ARCHBISHOP RIORDAN 40: Coach Austin Loeb’s Crean Lutheran Saints opened the tournament Thursday with a big win at St. Joseph High School in Santa Maria.

“The boys played great defensively,” Loeb said.

Hunter Caplan scored 23 points and made five 3-pointers, Chadrack Mpoyi had 12 points and nine rebounds and Caden Jones scored seven points to lead Crean Lutheran (8-1). Crean Lutheran outrebounded Archbishop Riordan 40-24.

The Saints’ Nicholas Giarrusso was the top rebounder with 14 and also had five assists. Andrew Hillman led Archbishop Riordan with 20 points.

Crean Lutheran faces Riviera Prep from Miami Friday.

PRO IMAGE SPORTS HOLIDAY CLASSIC

JSERRA 71, RIDGELINE OF UTAH 46: The Lions (6-3) were led by Jaden Bailes who had a game high 21 points and five assists and Hunter Frates who had 14 points and four 3-pointers. Ryan Doane added 13 points, eight rebounds and three blocks for JSerra.

SAVANNA TOURNAMENT

ESPERANZA 57, TEMESCAL CANYON 36: The Azctecs (11-1) wrapped up the tournament with a win Thursday. Sophomore Mason Moore had 17 points, four rebounds and four steals and senior Vincent Garza had 15 points, eight rebounds and six assists to lead Esperanza to its eighth straight win. Esperanza hosts Lakewood Saturday.

LOS ALTOS 65, UNIVERSITY 58: University jumped out to an early lead and led 19-16 after the first quarter vs. a talented Los Altos team.

The Conquerors are from Hacienda Heights in Los Angeles County and ranked 59th in the CIF Southern Section. Los Altos fought back to lead 31-25 at the half and had a comfortable lead most of the second half until University made a run to cut it to 55-52 with 2:21 to go in the game before Los Altos sealed the win.

Los Altos (9-2) was led by 6-7 senior forward Kevin Keshishyan who had 25 points. Junior point guard Kylen Kincy scored 17 points including five free throws down the stretch while senior guard Isaac Reese pitched in with 13 points.

Sophomore guard Yousuf Chalan had a career high 17 points for University (2-8). Sophomore point guard Connor Cao was a spark plug with 13 points and seven assists. Junior center Abdallah Shami had his sixth double-double in his last seven games with 11 points and 13 rebounds (six offensive) while adding six assists.

—Courtesy Daryl Bogard, For OC Sports Zone

NON-LEAGUE

TARBUT V’ TORAH 50, MAGNOLIA SCIENCE OF SANTA ANA 40: Tarbut Lions held off a scrappy Magnolia Science of Santa Ana. Ori Maya led the Lions (3-4) with 18 points which Ari Varon had 14 points and Jon Groner pulled down 15 rebounds.

WESTERN SHOWCASE

TRABUCO HILLS 67, WESTERN 62: The Mustangs (7-6) were led by Carter Peckson, who had 17 points, four rebounds and three steals and Shoji Karst and Ryan Hull, who had 11 points each.

—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com