jday311.htm

SoCal High School & Prep Report

Jason Day: Westchester
Wins Ugly. . . But Wins--(March 11, 1998)

Jason Day attended the Westchester v. Long Beach Poly game last night. And true to form, Poly has a way of taking itself and the other team's offense completely out of the game in the early going. Remember the Poly v. Fairfax game in the MLK? One of the ugliest games we'd seen up to that point in the season. Well, according to Jason, last night's game was also pretty ugly. How ugly? Let him tell you. And if you don't agree, let him know at elgee333@pacbell.net. Just tell him we sent you. :-)

WESTCHESTER WINS UGLY, BUT WINS

POLY NO MATCH, FALLS 67-51

Jason Day

Ugly is the only way I can think of to describe this game. As a matter of fact it was the ugliest game I’ve seen in awhile. It was 9-9 after the first quarter. It was that ugly.

A friend at the game, attributed it to the difficulty of playing so many "big" games over a very short period. He also noted that for these two teams this matchup may have been somewhat anticlimatic. Poly had just lost the 1-AA title to Artesia Saturday night, and although Westchester had beaten Manual for the City title Friday night, the real game for them was the one against Crenshaw the week before.

Whatever the reason, neither team looked particularly sharp in this one. Westchester opened the insurmountable gap with a 15-0 run to open the second half. For nearly seven minutes, Poly put on as inept a performance as I’ve seen in a long time. If they had thrown the ball away just one more time I think Coach Palmer would have had a stroke right then and there.

Westchester gets very few props for execution either, particularly in the first half. In fact, if Poly could have made a layup in the second quarter, they could have had a double digit lead at the half. Westchester was turning the ball over with impunity and Poly just couldn’t captitalize.

It was 28-27, Westchester, at the half.

When the two teams came out for the second half, Comets Albert Miller, C.J. Williams, Brandon Granville, and David Bluthenthal all stepped up and went to work. Poly had the door slammed within 6 minutes as their stars, Ricky Anderson, Mike McIntyre, and Wesley Stokes just about disappeared.

For Westchester:

Bluthenthal finished with 21 points, 11 boards, and a steal. He gave his next coach, USC’s Henry Bibby, who was in attendance, a treat by stepping away from the hoop and draining two pretty threes. His defense in the paint also contributed mightily to shutting down Anderson inside.

Miller, who continues to show why he is the "glue" on this squad, finished with 11 pts., 6 rebounds, and 2 steals. He helped out on Anderson, and rotated D on the other Poly "paint" men.

Granville had 10 points including two 3’s, 8 assists, a block, and 2 steals. While he appeared to be on cruise control again in this one, he was effective in getting the ball to other folks in the second half. I still would have liked to see him look to score some more, but he got the job done.

Tony Bland, who seemed to be dragging, may have been ill or just having an off day by his standards. He just didn’t seem to be very involved in this one. He was substituted a lot, which leads me to believe he was under the weather. He finished with 10 pts. 2 pretty blocks, and an assist.

C.J. had 4 points, and a stellar perfomance on defense.

For Poly:

McIntyre had a game high 22, with 5 three pointers. Unfortunately, it was far too little and much of it, including 3 of those 3 pointers, came far too late. Mike also had 4 boards.

Ricky Anderson came off a 24 point performance against Artesia, and was held to 10 in this one. He was a force in the paint with 9 rebounds and 7 blocks. But he was one of the key Jackrabbits suffering from "cantputitinthebucketupcloseitis".

Everyone else simply did not show for the second half. Wesley Stokes had his second ineffective outing in a row and finished with 3 pts. and a couple of steals.

Keyon Cooley, who had a great game game against Artesia, going for 16, could only contribute 4 points and 4 boards against the Comets. Key role players like Shelton Diggs, Mike Sargent, and Jason Waltower were all missing in action.

One bright spot was the exciting play of Jamil Lee who showed, in limited minutes, what an athlete he is. He might be 6’-0", tops, and blew to the rack on a spectacular breakaway slam. Of course, it "boinked" off the back of the rim, but the potential was there. He also scored on some nice moves to the hoop. He finished with 4.

So it wasn’t pretty, but Westchester moves on against Clovis West (they beat Manual Arts 82-68) Thursday night. If Artesia, an 85-62 winner over Paciffic, can get past Casey Jacobsen and Glendora Thursday, the rematch between Artesia and Westchester would take place Saturday for all the Southern Section D-1 marbles.

Stay tuned.

See ya.

Jason Day