crenshaw defeats sylmar 0224.htm

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SoCalHoops High School News

LA City Section Playoffs: Crenshaw
Squeaks By Sylmar, 73-72--(Feb. 24, 1999)

Who would have believed that any Crenshaw team could come this close to losing a playoff game at home? But Sylmar gave the Cougars the game of their lives and we'd like to say that Crenshaw won this game, but they didn't. Sylmar lost it. And the Spartans, last year's 3A City Champs lost it by missing a layup with one second on the clock. Here's the setup:

First quarter, Sylmar is blowing the Cougars away. Sylmar is grabbing every rebound in sight, making their shots, going hard to the basket, and Crenshaw is the team that's starting to panic. Sylmar looks loose, Crenshaw tight as a drum. And probably for good reason. Willie West, their long-time and legendary coach is nowhere to be seen. Seems his father passed away in Houston a few days ago and he had to fly back for the funeral, so coach Duckett is calling the shots. But for some reason he didn't start Tommy Johnson or Armand Thomas. But with about 3 minutes remaining in the first quarter and the score 17-7, Crenshaw finally calls a timeout, and puts in Johnson and also pulls E.J. Harris, who by that point had already committed three turnovers. Crenshaw managed to close a little by the end of the quarter, but it was clear that they really hadn't expected to see a Sylmar team this athletic and strong. Jeremiah Turner was vacuuming the glass, T.K. Reed was alternating bringing the ball up with Brandon Jacobsen, and George Wrighster was driving and hitting from inside and out. Score at the end of the quarter: Sylmar 20, Crenshaw 11.

More of the same for most of the second quarter, but with about two minutes to go, Crenshaw went on a run, pulling to within three. But every time Crenshaw threatened, Sylmar would go on a little run of it's own. Both teams were getting pretty tired by the end of the half, but still Sylmar led 38-36 at the half. In the first half, Branden Jacobsen had 5, Dallas Townsend had 4, John Valdez 4, T.K. Reed 6, George Wrighster 6, Jeremiah Turner 4, and Joey Youmans 9; for Crenshaw, Jonathan Stokes had 4, E.J. Harris 8, Lloyd Brewer 8, Tommy Johnson 2, DeWayne Parker 4, Shaun Hemsley 2, Ryan Sims 2, and Daramola had 4.

In the third quarter, it was all Crenshaw as the Cougars held Sylmar to just 11 points, and scored 22 themselves, and at the end of three the score was Crenshaw 58, Sylmar 49. But hold on to your hats, because the fourth quarter was where it all got weird and different, especially if you're a 'Shaw fan. And if you're a Sylmar fan, there wasn't a game this season with more opportunity squandered than this one. Crenshaw was pounding the Spartans at the beginning of the quarter, and at one point led by about 13, but then in the last three minutes of the game, Sylmar went to a spread, press break offense, and once they'd beaten the vaunted Crenshaw press, it was too easy to score, and unbelievably, Sylmar pulled to within three with just about 1:20 to play. That's when George Wrighster and Shaun Hemsley decided to go at it under the boards, fighting for a rebound, and Shaun got the worst of it, ending up sprawled on the ground, with a possible season-ending injury to his left leg and knee. The game was stopped, and he was helped off the floor, and Crenshaw got the ball, shooting two, and that made the score 71-68, Crenshaw. On the very next play down the floor, Sylmar turned the ball over and E.J. Harris came in and laid the ball in, but as he did, he ultimately pulled up with a leg cramp and literally collapsed on the floor. So the score at that point was Crenshaw 73, Sylmar 68. But with E.J. laying under the Crenshaw basket, and Sylmar inbounding the ball and taking it up the floor, the refs didn't stop the game, and it wasn't until Jeremiah Turner hit a running banking three-pointer to bring the score to 73-72 with a little under 10 seconds that Crenshaw finally decided to call a time out to tend to the injured E.J. who was still writhing in pain on the floor.

After about three or four minutes, E.J. was helped off the floor. So here's the scene. Packed house. Two bands on either side of the gym banging away at each other, people yelling and screaming, and us, we're standing next to LACC coach Michael Miller, and we're all speculating about what's going to happen if Crenshaw loses at home, and none of the scenarios is very pretty. Eight seconds left on the clock, Crenshaw inbounds the ball to Tommy Johnson, who is immediately fouled. Seven seconds on the clock.

Now the only way that Crenshaw can lose this game is if the shooter misses the front end of the 1-and-1 and Sylmar gets the rebound and races down the floor and hits a shot, all in under 7 seconds.

So what does Crenshaw do? They take everyone, everyone off the line, and put them in the backcourt (guess they're getting ready to set up on defense); and what happens but the shooter misses the shot and Sylmar's Jeremiah Turner gets the rebound, races down the court toward the Sylmar basket, weaving in and out of Crenshaw players, who are desparately trying not to foul him (they had 10 team fouls at that point and it was double-bonus time). Jeremiah unbelievably gets through every single defender, drives right to the basket, goes up, and makes an uncontested layup. . . . except that he didn't. The ball hit the side of the rim, and dropped down, and with one second remaining, Turner got his own rebound, double-pumped to shake a defender, but it was too late, and the buzzer sounded. . . . Crenshaw wins, Sylmar loses.

Brandon Jacobs finished with 10, Dallas Townsend 12, George Wrighster 9, T.K. Reed 8, Joey Youmans 14, and Jeremiah Turner 14. For Crenshaw, E.J. had 15, Stokes 10, Brewer 10, Johnson 7, Dewayne Parker 6, Shaun Hemsley 4, Ryan Sims 2, Daramola 4, Dialo Washington 5.

What a great game. Incredible atmosphere, absolutely huge crowd, loud bands, drill teams, all the stuff you get with big-time City Section basketball that's missing in most of the Southern Section games we see all too often.

And they did it iBased on the scores which we've just reported prior to midnight on February 23, here are the matchups. We don't yet know all the locations, but these matchups look pretty exciting.