Valencia Tournament : Westminster, Valencia Advance

Senior Chris Tower scored 29 points and teammate Marland Love added 24 Friday night to lead Westminster High School to a 75-65 victory over El Modena in the semifinals of the Valencia Tournament at Valencia High School.

The victory puts the Lions (2-0) in the tournament final at 8 tonight against Valencia, which defeated Irvine, 63-59, in the other semifinal.

Ramsey Rycraw kept the Vanguards close early, scoring 11 of his team’s 19 points in the first quarter, as the period ended with a 19-19 tie. Rycraw finished the game with 17 points.

Westminster’s fullcourt press broke the game open in the second quarter, as the Lions forced El Modena into several turnovers.

Mark Austin’s 15-foot jumper at the buzzer capped a 22-9 run for Westminster and gave the Lions a 41-28 halftime lead.

Westminster’s lead grew to 17 points in the third quarter before the Vanguards made a comeback.

El Modena outscored the Lions 11-1 in a span of three minutes and cut the Westminster lead to seven points, 62-55, on Russ Weitl’s basket with 7:15 left.

Tower then made two consecutive turnaround jump shots to put the Lions’ ahead by 11, 66-55. El Modena never got closer than nine points the rest of the way.

Robbie Pietsch led the Vanguards with 24 points, and Mark Austin added 7 points and 10 rebounds for Westminster.

In other tournament games:

Valencia 63, Irvine 59--The host Tigers (2-0) advanced to the final with a 25-point performance by guard Bernie James.

Jerry Petersen had 23 points for Irvine, which meets El Modena in the third-place game tonight.

Troy 50, Sonora 48--Jeff Holland scored on a layup with one second left to lead the Warriors to a come-from-behind victory.