Deandre Brown

Whittier Christian took a 23-9 first-quarter lead and went on to defeat Orange Lutheran, 85-56, in an Olympic League boys' basketball game Tuesday night at Whittier Christian. Erik Martin scored a game-high 31 points to lead the Heralds. Whittier Christian (7-4 overall, 2-0 in league play) held a 41-21 lead at halftime. Daryl Cole led Orange Lutheran (6-6, 1-2) with 14 points.

A South-Central Los Angeles gang member was sentenced Monday to a term of 17 years to life for the playground shooting death of a 9-year-old boy who was caught in a gunfight between rival gang factions. The June 24, 1987, death of DeAndre Brown, who was playing in a sandbox at Mt. Carmel Park at 70th and Hoover streets, caused such widespread community outrage that several witnesses came forward and identified Damon Thompson, then 17, as the triggerman. Concern over the continual gang activity in the wake of the shooting prompted some to initiate a campaign to rename the park for the dead boy. So when word spread of the sentence imposed Monday against Thompson--just five days short of the second anniversary of the shooting--residents of the neighborhood rejoiced.

at Houston 70, No. 25 Tulsa 30: Case Keenum threw for a career-high six touchdowns and ran for another score to help the Cougars (6-4, 5-1) stun the Golden Hurricane (8-2, 5-1) in a Conference USA game. Tulsa, which won its first eight games, had five turnovers. at Southern Mississippi 21, East Carolina 3: Austin Davis threw for two touchdowns, including a school-record 97-yarder to DeAndre Brown, and the Golden Eagles (5-6, 3-4) beat the Pirates (6-4, 4-2) in a C-USA game at Hattiesburg.

A 27-year-old Los Angeles man today was convicted of kidnaping and killing two Southland college students in 1985, a crime that could result in his death in the gas chamber. The jury that deliberated the fate of Stanley Bernard Davis announced its verdict just after 10:30 a.m. in Santa Monica Superior Court.

Michael McGee blocked a potential score-tying field-goal attempt in overtime, lifting Southern Mississippi to a 30-27 comeback victory over Troy in the New Orleans Bowl on Sunday night. Troy held Southern Mississippi to Britt Barefoot's 39-yard field goal on the first possession of overtime, but that wound up being enough for the Golden Eagles to win their third New Orleans Bowl in as many appearances.

Death in the gas chamber was recommended Thursday for a 27-year-old South-Central Los Angeles man convicted of the brutal murders of two college sweethearts abducted near the UCLA campus and shot to death four years ago. Santa Monica Superior Court jurors returned with death verdicts in the third day of the penalty phase of the trial of Stanley Bernard Davis in the slayings of UCLA freshman Michelle Anne Boyd, 19, and Cal State Northridge sophomore Brian Edward Harris, 20.

Moving in shortly after midnight, detectives arrested a fourth suspect Tuesday in the slayings of two university students who police say were abducted and killed for the car they drove. Donald Roy Bennett, 21, was arrested without incident at his South-Central Los Angeles home in connection with the deaths of Brian E. Harris, 20, and Michelle Ann Boyd, 19, Lt. Michael Carpenter of the Los Angeles Police Department's West Bureau said.

A teen-age Latino gang member was arrested Monday in the death of a 10-year-old boy who was shot and killed as he played with a group of children near Pacoima Park, police said. The suspect, a 17-year-old Pacoima resident, was allegedly shooting at black gang members who Sunday evening punched a 14-year-old Latino boy for wearing the colors of a rival gang, Los Angeles police detectives said. The victim was identified as Alejandro Salazar, a fourth-grade student at Pacoima Elementary School.