Newbury Park Can’t Stay With Dominguez

Talk about a game where things just don’t go your way.

Newbury Park High’s Luther Staine launched a three-point shot from half court with one-tenth of a second left in the first half of a Southern Section Division II-A quarterfinal against Compton Dominguez on Friday night at Compton High.

The ball banked in, but time had expired before Staine released the shot.

It would have doubled the Panthers’ point total for the second quarter, but that’s the way it turns out when a team is on its way to losing, 101-48.

The Dons (23-5) were just too much of everything.

Second-seeded Dominguez goes 12 deep without a significant drop-off in talent.

The Dons’ full-court pressure defense caused problems, their overwhelming speed and quickness advantage caused problems and, oh yeah, there were those nine dunks--six by 6-foot-5 junior Jason Thomas, a highly sought college prospect.

The Panthers (19-9), the Marmonte League co-champions, had a 13-11 lead about four minutes into the game, but made only nine more field goals.

The Panthers turned the ball over 30 times and made 14 of 50 field-goal attempts.

They had just one field goal in the second quarter and two in the fourth.

“We ran in to a great team,” Panther Coach Steve Johnson said. “Their defense makes you feel like every pass has to be perfect and every shot has to be quick and perfect.

“But 32 minutes of basketball doesn’t take away from the great season we had.”

Daniel Bobik, a 6-5 junior guard, had 16 points, the only Panther in double figures. Senior center Jim Newton, who had all six of his points in the first quarter, was ejected with 5:37 left in the third quarter after picking up his second technical foul.

Thomas had 29 points and seven steals for Dominguez. Fresno State-bound guard Kenny Brunner had 20 points and 10 assists.