Boys Division V-AA Championship
Pacific Hills 59, Morningside 47
Jack Pollon
March 5, 2009
Pacific Hills of West Hollywood won its second Southern Section championship in three years Thursday evening in a 59-47 victory against Morningside of Inglewood at Colony High in Ontario.
The Bruins (26-6) weathered a 5-0 deficit and led 29-20 at halftime before taking a 14-point lead in the third quarter.
UC Irvine-bound guard Derick Flowers scored 21 points inclduing four 3-pointers to lead Pacific Hills.
Marc Porter and Alex Osborne each had 12 points for the Bruins.
Morningside made things interesting cutting a 36-22 deficit to for points with four minutes remaining but could get no closer.
Pacific Hills kept its composure and made 15 of 19 free throws in the second half including 11 of 14 in the final quarter.
"For lack of a better word, this is unbelieveable," Flowers said.
The victory not only erased a heart-breaking one-point loss to La Verne Lutheran in last years championship but puts this version of the Bruins on par with teams from 1990's when Pacific Hills was in six championship games from 1992-1998. The Bruins won four titles in those six appearances.
Morningside was making its first appearance since losing back to back championship games in 1996 and 19997 to Harvard-Westlake of North Hollywood.
"We are trying to rebuild the program," Morningside coach Donnell Meekins said.
As for not being able to complete the comeback, Morningside's A.J. Harris said, "Some ill-advised shots and defensive breakdowns hurt us."
Josh Smith scored 16 points and Harris had 14 to lead the Monarchs (23-9).
Daron Molock had 16 rebounds but Morningside was only one of 16 shooting from 3-point range and made only 10 free throws in 18 attempts compared to 20 of 26 for Pacific Hills.