Cypress beats Army-Navy at Torrey Pines Holiday Classic

VISTA — The tone was set early.

Gavin Kroll blocked a pair of shots in the game’s opening possession and the agile 6-foot-7 senior finished with five blocks, 13 rebounds and six points as Cypress slugged its way to a 50-36 win over Army-Navy Academy on Monday night at Rancho Buena Vista High School.

The win in the first semifinal of Governor’s Division of the Torrey Pines Holiday Classic propels the Centurions (13-5) into Tuesday’s 8 p.m. championship at RBV against the winner of the late semifinal between Poway and Coronado.

Army-Navy (9-5) will play for third place at 6:25 p.m. against the loser of Poway-Coronado.

Monday’s loss snapped a five-game Army-Navy winning streak after the Warriors opened the season 4-4.

Cypress is ranked No. 63 in the state by MaxPreps.com and No. 25 in the CIF Southern Section by the Los Angeles Times.

Army-Navy is one of the bigger teams in San Diego, boasting 6-8 Ernest Donkoh, 6-7 Ivan Marchenko, 6-6 Kevin Sun and 6-5 Bentlee Easterday. They couldn’t match Kroll and 6-7 Emmanuel Igbekoyi and the quickness of guards Ryan Gov and Ethan Mai.

Army-Navy trailed 17-6 at the end of the first quarter, cut it to 25-15 at the half, but fell behind 38-15 in the third quarter that included nine Warriors turnovers.

Marchenko, who came into the contest averaging 19.3 points a game, finished with 14 points and eight rebounds. Yanier Ramos backed him with 13 points and eight rebounds.

Gov led Cypress with 19 points and Mai added 11.

Cypress forced 21 Army-Navy turnovers.

In other Governor’s Division games at RBV:

Del Norte 72, Sage Creek 59: Joe Freer scored all 12 of his points in the fourth quarter to lead Del Norte (8-7) to a comeback win. Sage Creek (7-8) led 32-26 at the half and 46-44 at the end of three quarters. But Del Norte outscored Sage Creek 28-13 in the final quarter.

Oliver Cooper led Del Norte with 18 points, Kavan Dhami added 25 and Jackson Carpenter had 13.Vaughn Young led Sage Creek with 20 points, Jordan Barnhart added 16 and Sam Jahries had 12 points and nine rebounds before fouling out.

Del Norte plays Tuesday at 4:55 p.m. against host RBV in the fifth-place game.

Sage Creek plays at 1:45 p.m.

Rancho Buena Vista 59, Elk Grove Laguna Creek 38: Dartmouth-bound CJ Abrams led the Longhorns (6-9) with 27 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.

Abrams averages 22.6 points and 6.0 rebounds a game.

Owen Mai had four points, but had nine rebounds.

RBV outrebounded Laguna Creek (6-7) 32-19. The Longhorns were 17 of 21 from the free-throw line while Laguna Creek was 10 of 23, which included hitting 7 of 10 in the fourth quarter.

RBV, which starts three freshmen and plays four, will play Del Norte at 4:55 p.m. Tuesday in the fifth-place game.