City Wins Grossmont Tourney Championship For 3rd Straight Year

For the third consecutive year and the sixth time in the last seven seasons, the No. 7 Knights (8-2) are champions of the Grossmont College tournament after edging out a 71-69 win over No. 4 Yuba in the title game on Sunday night. Sophomore guard KJay Bradley was named Most Outstanding Player of the tournament and Alex Crawford was selected to the all-tournament team.

The Knights made it to the championship game by getting big wins over No. 18 Saddleback (76-58) in the first round and L.A. Trade Tech (93-55) in the semifinals. 

Bradley and Crawford led City with 15 points a piece in the victory over Saddleback with Bradley adding 10 assists and four steals.

Five players scored in double figures in the semifinal win over LATTC, including sophomore Dexter Stratton who led with 19 and 10 rebounds off the bench. Crawford filled the stat sheet in that game with 14 points, eight rebounds, three assists, and three blocks. Bradley had eight points and dished out another seven assists, while Keavie Love put together another solid performance off the bench with 17 points, six boards, and two steals.

The Knights matched up against Yuba (6-1) in the final of this tournament for the second straight year and it played out similarly with the Knights going ahead by double digits in the first half and Yuba nearly coming back.

In Sunday's game, the Knights put together a 16-4 run midway through the first half to grab a 15-point lead, but it wouldn't last very long as Yuba cut City's lead down to 37-28 at halftime. Bradley scored all 11 of his points in the first half.

San Diego City held Yuba to 34.6% shooting in that first half, but the Niners heated up in the second half by making 55% of their shots, including 44.4% (4-of-9) from 3-point territory to help them stay within arms reach.

Yuba got within four points at the 8:08 mark, but City pushed their lead back up to 65-55 with 4:16 left to play after a dunk by Crawford. The Niners, however, went on a quick 8-0 run to get within two at the two-minute mark after a 3 by Caden Flowers who led Yuba with 27 points.

With 30 seconds remaining, a City foul led to two made free throws by Yuba's Devon Malcolm to make it a one-point game. On City's next possession, Bradley found Crawford for a layup to put the Knights back up by three.

On the other end, Crawford blocked a potential game-tying 3-pointer by Yuba's Cam Niles, but the ball fell to Flowers who was then fouled on another 3-point attempt. Fortunately for the Knights, Flowers only made the first of his three free throw attempts and the Knights held on for the win.

Crawford led City with 16 points, six rebounds, and three blocks, while Al Green finished with 15 points, three rebounds and three steals. Bradley had eight assists against Yuba and ended up with a total of 25 in the three wins this weekend. 

Kevin Moore had 11 points, including 6-for-6 from the free throw line.

This was the 51st edition of the Grossmont tournament and the Knights have only participated in seven of them, but have won the championship six times, which is more than any other school.

The Knights have played seven ranked opponents already this season and have gotten wins in five of them, including Sunday's win over No. 4 Yuba.

City will play two more top-30 teams this week when they travel up to the Fullerton College Classic where they will match up against No. 5 Fullerton on Friday, Dec. 8 at 7 p.m. and No. 17 West L.A. on Dec. 9 at 3 p.m.