SoCal High School & Prep Report

City Section Playoffs: Division 4-AA
WESTCHESTER WINS CITY FINAL 78-62--(March 6, 1998)

All right, this is it. Let's get it on. We're here at the Sports Arena, and thanks to the miracle of modern web technology, we're going to try to put this up right after the end of the game. Nah, let's go with real time. This may seem a bit disjointed, but we're going to put this up throughout the game at regular intervals. We're not sure how it will work, but we'll give it a try.

Keep checking in if you can't get to a TV with KLCS, because they're broadcasting the game live on Channel 58 here in LA. It's not cable, but UHF, so everyone within reach can get the game.

A sea of red, white and black (Westchester) and purple and white (Manual). Uh oh, Manual looks like they're going to try to run with Westchester. . .even their shirts say "when you can run you can fly." Hasn't anyone given them the word? No one runs with Westchester.

We'll see.

Teams warming up. Big loud band from Manual. Tiny band from Westchester. Bigger team from Westchester. Tiny . . . no that's not right. Big team from Manual too. Tony Bland and Brandon Granville are the captains. Can't tell who it was for Manual, but it looked like Ricky Duff, who's looking pretty tough and strong tonight. Ed Azzam over in the corner talking with some folks looking pretty relaxed, Randolph Simpson and his assistant also looking good, but not as easy with the Westchester guys warming up in front of them.

The announcer tells us that "both of these teams will be in the Regional Playoffs". So now you know.

Game time. A trombone solo from a Westchester player for the national anthem. The introductions:

The tip-off. Bluthenthal jumping against Witherspoon. Granville gets the tip misses and Manual gets the ball, Ricky Duff misses a layup, and then Granville misses a fast break layup. No score. David Bluthenthal strikes first and the entire USC team is here watching, including Adam Spanich and Greg Lakey to see what their prospective teammate can do. Manual misses down the floor again and Bland is fouled hard by Johnny Hardwick on the drive. Bland for two hits them both. 4-2 6:44 to play.

Granville hits CJ cutting in the lane, he misses the shot, and it's rebounded by Granville, who is fouled by Hardwick, his second. Bland then scores off a sweet layup, 6-0 Westchester. Manual called on Witherspoon for the charge, turnover, ball to Westchester, Bland down low on the left again, lays it in but is called for the offensive foul. Manuals Thomas Spain gets Manual on the board with a long three, and it's 6-3 with 4:58 in the first. Bluthenthal working the ball to Bland, and Tony hits for two again from the left,8-3 Comets.

Millage comes in at 4:38, and he immediately hits a three. Granville can't, for some reason keep the handle, and Millage steals, and Duff scores. Bluthenthal off a patented backdoor Granville pass, and its 10-8 Comets.

Millage at the point, Duff coming off a screen at the top of he key, and it's stolen by Granville who dishes to David, and it's missed, but Brandon makes it 12-8 with the putback. 2:35 in the first quarter. Lou Wright in for Brandon Granville. Albert Miller can't handle the pass in the corner and turns it over. Otis Belise in at the guard spot, and Millage both gang up on Osborne and the foul is called on Millage. Next time down, Osborne gets tied up again, and travels turning it over.

Brandon back in this time for CJ. But Bluthenthal is called for a foul on James Wright, who is fouled going up, and he makes one, and it's 12-9 with 1:28 to go. Wright on the fast break, hits the driving layup, and is then warned by the ref for taunting Lou Wright.

Tony Bland makes one of the sweetest, hanging j's in the lane, Osborne blocks Mileage's' shot big time, but Lou Wright misses badly on the fast break layup. Wow. 14-11 Comets, and Manual is going to run. Witherspoon hits two from the line to bring the score to 14-13 at the end of the first quarter. It's now 8:40 pm, so if you're reading this you can tell just how real-time we are.

Wow. Bland has 8 of the 14 first quarter points. Wright has 4 for Manual.

Second quarter. Brandon picks up his first. Otis then drives the left side for Manual, and Ricky Duff steals and Manual is ahead 14-15. Bland comes right back, and gets his head taken off by Dillingham, his first, 5th team foul. Bland hits one, hits two. 16-15.

Next down, Dillingham scores on an assist from Millage, and Osborne is hit and twists his ankle. Bluthenthal comes in and immediately scores, 18-17 Comets. Miller steals the ball, Granville hits Bland in the right corner, and Bland hits a three. 21-17. Then Miller hits a to in the lane a driving layup, and it's 23-17 with 5:45 in the second to play.

Manual time out, and on the next play Belise hits a two, Dillingham steals, misses the layup, and then Ricky Duff slams it home off the rebound.. 5:09 Brandon Moore fouls Tony hard, again taking him to the floor, and he goes to the line for two. Misses the first, makes the second. 24-21.

Bluthenthal forces Duff to travel and turns it over. Now Tony Bland is out with a limping ankle. And he heads over to the locker room but comes back and appears fine. Albert Miller is now at the line 1-1, and makes the first 25-21, and hits the 2d too 26-21. 4:32 to play in the quarter.

Millage and Wright out on the wings guarded by CJ who's now back and Brandon. Miller brings the ball up off the rebound, gets it to Granville who jacks up a long outside shot which misses. But CJ fouls away from the ball and Manual gets it, turning it over. Bluthenthal misses a monster dunk which goes back to the halfcourt, and Granville misses again. Miller is fouled by Hardwick on the offensive glass, and he hits the first, 27-21, and makes the second, 28-21.

3:10 to play and Granville gives to Bland on the fast break and Tony misses the lay in, but Duff makes it on the other end. 28-23 Comets. Tony then travels badly losing his balance, and Wright to Moore makes the combination for Manual as Moore scores on a 15' turnaround J from the right baseline.

1:59 to play, and Tony picks up another foul. James Wright tries another three, and misses, Westchester gets the ball and Lou Wright misses on the other end. Manual turns it over again. David passes to Brandon in the left corner, who feed to Tony, and Duff blocks it for the goaltend. 30-25 Comets, but David Bluthenthal is hit hard and leaves the game with an eye injury.

So now with 51 seconds to play, CJ picks up his third personal, Spain misses the foul shot, but Duff scores. 30-27. Westchester playing for the last shot and Sweet Lou misses, Manual comes down and Dean Washington goes to the line hitting one off the Osborne foul, 30-28. He hits the second and with 18.0 it's 30-29. Brandon Granville playing for the last shot, holds the ball until 2 seconds, drives the lane, and gets Dillingham to foul him. He hits the first and makes the second, and at the buzzer it's 32-29 Westchester.

A blowout. Are you kidding. This is a great game. We'll be back after the half.Here's the scoring for the half: Granville 2, CJ 4, Miller and David 6 each, and Bland a game high 14 points. For Manual Dillingham 2, Moore 6, Spain 3, Millage 3, Duff 6, James Wright 3 points, 2 boards and 2 steals. Witherspoon 2, Belise 4.

So during the half, I had a chance to talk with Greg Lakey, who says he doesn't know where Russell (Harvard-Westlake's sophomore point guard) is tonight, but he agrees, he's probably getting ready for Rockfish. We see Adam Spanich, who tells me that the win last night "felt great", and he's really looking forward to seeing David Bluthenthal play regularly in the Sports Arena for the Trojans. I ask him what they're going to do tomorrow against Arizona State, and he say's "Win." When asked what he thinks will happen in the UCLA game, he says, smiling, "UCLA doesn't stand a chance. They're gonna get killed." When I ask him if he really wants us to publish it, he smiles and says "Go ahead. Really, they're gonna get killed." We'll see, he may be right.

Second half. Final 16 minutes. David is back, feeling ok, Tony is in, Granville, Miller and CJ. For Manual its Ricky, Moore, Millage and Wright, and Dillingham. Bluthenthal scores easily, and it's 34-29 with only seconds gone. Dillingham then gets his third foul and Manual is pressing on the inbounds heavily. They force Westchester o the half court game, and then on the missed shot, Duff makes a beautiful no look left right hand hook pass to Dillingham for the score. 34-31. Granville then fouls, getting his second, and Millage on the ensuing possession scores.

The press is being effective at preventing the inbounds, but Miller down low penetrates the coverage, and scores, 36-33 5:554 in the third. Brandon then gets a rebound, doesn't pass to David standing under the basket, drives himself, makes the two and one, and it's 39-33 with 5:24 to play.

Granville makes a beautiful pass to Miller on the break, who hits the layup, and is fouled by Millage and suddenly the Comets have an 8 point lead, with 5:09 to play. Miller makes the foul shot, and it's now a 9 point game.

James Wright misses a layup and Brandon Granville gets the board and pushes the ball again, drawing Millage into fouling him on the drive in the key. Bluthenthal then scores off the inbounds play on a turnaround lay-in, and it's now an 11 point game with 4:23 to go.

On the ensuing play, Granville fouls picking up his third, , but then steals then inbound, breaks and feeds to Bluthenthal, who can't handle it, and Tony picks it up and scores. 46-33.

Manual wisely calls a time-out at 4:04 to play in the third.

Westchester goes to a spread court offense with Tony at the high post, and Granville and CJ on the wings. Tony is stripped of the ball on the feed from Granville but is fouled. On the inbounds, Tony then rebounds a missed shot from Miller, gets the putback and is fouled going up. He misses the free throw, but it's still 48-33. Manual misses again, and CJ cherry picks off the break, and now it's 50-33.

This is a 16-0 run, and Manual is working itself right out of this game by trying to run.

Osborne just rips the ball away from Duff off a Granville miss, and finally Spain gets the ball and the score for Manual to break the drought at 52-35 with 2:07 to play. Lou Wright comes in for Tony and Bluthenthal comes in for Miller (when did David go out?).

James Wright hits a long two after a foul shot by Spain, and it's 52-38. 1:32 to go. Lou Wright is called for the foul on Witherspoon.

Manual is no working the half court, setting picks driving hard off the screens and setting Witherspoon and Spain at the shooting spots; Spain takes a pass from Wright coming off a screen at the top of the key and strokes it home. 52-41. But then they give it right back, fouling David B, who puts in the two foul shots.

Witherspoon hits, then Spain steals, and it's a 4-0 run for Manual, and a 9 point game again, 54-45 at the end of the third quarter, and Mr. Mo is coming back for Manual. At least that's what the crowd wants us to believe. Actually, it's a 12-2 run to end the quarter.

Score at the end of three, 54-45.

Here we go, the last quarter for the City Championship. Tony, David, Albert, Brandon and Osborne; Millage Duff, Witherspoon, and Wright.

James Wright opens with a three pointer. 54-48.

But on the way back, Osborne is fouled by Moore, and he goes to the line, hits one out of two, and its 55-48. Moore's second personal.

Moore is then fouled going up for the shot by Granville who picks up his 4th, the Comets 6th team foul, and Granville comes out, replaced by Ben Davis. Manual makes the foul shot, 55-49, and on the second, Manual misses, but gets the board, and James Wright misses, Osborne rebounds, but travels.

Manual gets the ball, but then David picks up his second. Ricky Duff goes to the line, misses them both, and Manual rebounds, but Millage travels.

Tony at the point,and feeds to Osborne down low, who is fouled by Witherspoon. Osborne makes he first, 56-49, makes the second and Manuals James Wright goes to the hole strong, misses and comes down hard on another players foot, twisting his right ankle. At 6:28 to play, the refs call an injury time-out, while Wright is attended to. He's definitely down for more than 30 seconds, but nobody is making a huge effort to get him off the floor and get play resumed.

Finally, after about three minutes, James Wright, who has played a phenomenal game, is helped off the floor, and he's not putting any weight on his injured leg, not a good sign.

But Manual is now fired up, and Millage comes in and scores right away on a driving, flying lay in, but Bland comes right back. Manual is missing first, second and third chances, going for slams that aren't there, but it's still an 8 point game with only 5:31 to play.

With 5:25 to go, Bluthenthal is called for a foul on Duff, a charging foul, and then Osborne and Duff get into it. Osborne is called for the tech. Duff shoots the foul shots, makes one, Millage shoots the T and makes one, so it's now a 6 point game, 59-53. Interesting call, because Duff shoved Osborne, and it looked like Chris was just saying something, and not pushing back.

Millage gets called for a charge (how many is that in this game?), and ten on the way down, Johnny Hardwick picks up his fourth on Tony Bland, who makes the first, makes the second, and at 5:02 it's 61-53.

Manual is pushing, but Westchester just lets Dillingham walk into the lane for two. Tony comes back misses badly, and then David Bluthenthal picks up his fourth on another charge. Manual throws the ball away (that's the 10th team foul, why isn't Manual shooting???). Are the refs getting too tired to hear the announcer say 10th team foul?

Osborne misses the free throws, but Miller gets the putback and it's 63-55, Manual misses a layup (the umpteenth miss), and Tony comes right back for a very pretty driving layup from the front of the rim with just great elevation. Score 65-57.

Manual time-out. Good decision. With 3:19, this game might be in the refrigerator. We'll see.

3:19 to go. Granville back in, feeds to Osborne, ball stolen, and then Osborne gets called for goaltending on the Brandon Moore shot.

Granville feeds to Miller at the top of the key, who scores. Manual shoots, Bluthenthal rebounds. Westchester in a motion spread offense, when Dillingham fouls Granville away from the ball. with 1:55 to play. He misses the first (when was the last time he did that), hits the second, but Manual comes right back with a layup, and with 1:45 to play it's still a game, 68-61.

Manual calls another time-out with 1:45. They need some threes. . .or a few twos. They can't keep missing the easy layups. And the Comets need to play some defense.

Granville with the ball, spinning, dribbling between his legs, off to Tony, back to CJ, with the motion. To David down low, who misses, misses again, misses again, and then Tony rebounds, but falls out of bounds.

With 1:02 to play, Albert Miller is fouled, goes to the line, hits one of two, and with under a minute it's 69-61. Duff misses another layup, and CJ off the fast break elevates and almost dunks it. 37 seconds, and Granville is fouled by Millage, who fouls out. This game is over, but Granville is still shooting two. He hits them both, and it's 73-61 Comets.

With 26 seconds, David Bluthenthal fouls out with 12 points, and about 20 or so rebounds. He's replaced by McKenzie Dent, who will get all of 26 seconds to play. Manual makes one (we're not sure who shot it). Now with 22.9 seconds to go, Dillingham fouls out, sending Granville to the line again. Dillingham leaves with 4. Granville shooting two, makes one, makes two. 75-62. The Comets bring in Eric Knight, who hasn't played the entire game, Ben Davis, Jacobe Durrett and Jamal Sampson.

It's all over but the shouting, and with 16.9 to play, Manual brings in Ronald Cass, Mario Roberts, Farrell McKay and at the buzzer, McKenzie unbelievably hits a three to bring the score to 78-62.

Westchester is the 4-A Champion for the City Section of CIF for 1997-98. Manual Arts is the runner up, and both teams will go to the State Regionals .

We'll put up the final stats later. Hey, this "real-time" thing worked. Almost as good as television, or RealAudio. Well, almost. That's it for now. Gotta go watch the awards ceremony, and talk to the players and coaches.

Later.

Peace.

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