city 221

SoCal High School & Prep Report

City Section Playoffs: All
The Scores. . . Almost--(February 21, 1998)

What is it about the local media. How can they not cover all of the playoff games. We keep trying to fill the void, and sometimes we get lucky, other times, like today, we can't seem to get them all. Well, at least we've got all the linescores, and we managed to get boxes on almost all of them.

In Division 4-A, LA, Pali, Westchester, Crenshaw, Manual, Fairfax and Fremont all won, and the Valley is finished, but then what did the geniuses who planned the seedings expect.

In Division 3-A, just the opposite happened: Birmingham beat Jordan, San Fernando beat Venice, Sylmar beat Franklin, Poly Beat Narbonne. Reseda was the only Valley team eliminated from 3-A, as they lost to Hamilton. In other City-City contests, San Pedro, Bell and Uni all won.

Maybe Howie Levine is right: The Valley teams get no respect in the seedings, so last night's results are really not surprising. Maybe, as he suggests, it's time to put together a playoff system where there are regional playoffs first, with all-Valley teams against all-Valley teams, with no 3-A or 4-A, since the distinction in enrollment figures from school to school in LAUSD is really meaningless with open enrollment in a school district the size of LA's. It's not like the student pool at say Belmont is, from a size point of view, all that different from Birmingham. Barbara Fiege at City Section might just want to think about it before the voters who are pushing for the breakup of LAUSD into two or more districts make the decision for the District. Levine's probably also right that it really wouldn't affect the overall outcome, since the best two teams will likely meet anyway, and for now with the 3-A v. 4-A left, it creates a situation where the winners of the two divisions never really fight it out to see who is the best.

But that's fantasy for now. Back to reality. Here's what happened last night in City Section playoffs in 4-A and 3-A Divisions.

DIVISION 4-A

Los Angeles 82, North Hollywood 65

North Hollywood coach Bloom was hoping that Keron Wilkerson could be the savior for the Huskies. While he scored 25 points, and DeJon Lee scored 27 points for North Hollywood, it just wasn't enough against a much stronger, quicker and better shooting LA High team. Wilkerson sparked the Huskies to a third-quarter rally, but fifth-seeded Los Angeles was too deep and too skilled for North Hollywood. The Romans' offense also was careful with the ball, committing only four turnovers. Los Angeles (19-7) was seeded higher, but No. 12 North Hollywood (18-9) was the host because it won the East Valley League, while the Romans finished second to top-seeded Westchester in the Western League.

The Romans' Leroy Dawson had 22 points, Deon Green had 19 points, and Devin Hicks scored 17, and they scored from inside and outside. North Hollywood, already undermanned because forward Jonathan Hicks was out because of a sprained left ankle, was hurt because of a lack of scoring down low. The Huskies battled back from a 50-34 deficit midway through the third quarter thanks to sharp shooting from behind the three-point stripe. Wilkerson made three three-point shots for the Huksies, who closed to within 54-50 on a banked three-point shot by Wilkerson with 1:07 left in the third quarter. But Los Angeles closed out the quarter with seven consecutive points for a 61-50 lead, and the Huskies never got close again. Los Angeles will play fourth-seeded Crenshaw in the quarterfinals Wednesday .

Palisades 58, Taft 55

Palisades slipped something into Taft's water supply on Friday night. It just took Taft nearly three quarters to wake up, and by then it was too late. A few minutes earlier, and the Toreadors might have survived. Instead their ill-timed rally was too little, too late, and Pali won 58-55, in a game played at Taft. After making its first three shots, eighth-seeded Taft was impatient and tentative in the first half, making four of 21 field-goal attempts in one stretch. As a result, the Dolphins (17-9) built a double-digit lead early in the second half. But after trading several baskets in the third quarter, the Toreadors finally found their offense. Brandyn Fisher, who had been nearly invisible in the first half with one point, scored four points and Bar-Netzer hit a jumper from the edge of the three-point line and Taft trailed, 44-40, at the end of the third quarter. Taft (15-6) carried the momentum into the fourth quarter, taking a 48-47 lead on a tip-in by Raja Boykins. Harold Shevlin added a free throw on the next possession for a two-point lead. The Toreadors could have built a bigger lead, but a jumper by Fisher spun out of the basket, and Taft missed the front ends of two one-and-one free-throw opportunities in the quarter. Taft finished 12 of 23 from the line, eight of 18 in the last three quarters. After a free throw by Steve McMaryion and a basket by Richard Rognlie of Palisades, Taft lost Bar-Netzer with 2:37 remaining when he committed his fifth foul on a close call. One official said Bar-Netzer blocked a shot by Rognlie but the other called the foul. Bar-Netzer left with 17 points. The Dolphins had no such problems. Edward Estavan, who scored 23 points, was 10 of 10 from the line and Palisades finished 21 of 25. Taft still had a chance in the final minute but Estavan was fouled with eight seconds left on the shot clock and Palisades holding a two-point lead. Estavan made both free throws, then the Dolphins fouled Eric Alvarez with 22 seconds left. Alvarez missed both free throws and
Estavan made two. The ninth-seeded Dolphins will play Coastal Conference rival and top-seeded Westchester in the quarterfinals Wednesday.

Westchester 71, Locke 40

What is this, a total news blackout? We couldn't find a single story on this one, and perhaps the win for Westchester was so unremarkable that none of the local press wanted to cover it. Actually, we don't know anybody who went to this game either, and everyone was really at the Crenshaw v. Grant game. . . the rest of the scores and details are just made up. . . really. . . they never happened.

Crenshaw 112, Grant 73

Gilbert Arenas scored 41 of his 42 points in the first three quarters but they weren't nearly enough for the Lancers (17-9) at Crenshaw. Anthony Garrison scored 21 points for fourth-seeded Crenshaw, which has won five consecutive 4-A titles.

Manual Arts 70, Cleveland 56

Kent Dennis scored 10 of his 19 points in the first quarter to help the Cavaliers to an early lead but they could not sustain the effort at Manual Arts. The sixth-seeded Toilers outscored Cleveland, 42-17, over the next two quarters. Brian Smith scored 18 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for 11th-seeded Cleveland (16-10).

Fairfax 77, Carson 72

Sophomore Jason Morrissette scored 22 points and the Lions' clutch foul shooting down the stretch helped them post a first-round victory and ruin a super performance by Colts' senior guard Mike Cortez, who pumped in a game-high 34 points. Cortez scored 17 points in the fourth quarter as Carson (16-11) erased most of a 10-point deficit. But Fairfax (17-11) received a big 3-pointer from Stanley Thorne (14 points) in the final minutes and sank 4 of 4 free throws in the closing seconds to hang on for the win.

Washington 64, Chatsworth 54

Montae McFarland and Mark Cannon each scored 15 points for the Chancellors in a defeat at Washington. Richard Harrison had 10 rebounds for the Chancellors (15-10). McFarland had six assists.

Fremont 86, Gardena 71

Unbelievably, like the Westchester game, we have no details on this one either.

DIVISION 3-A

Birmingham 52, L.A. Jordan 47

Stanley Fletcher had 21 points and nine rebounds to help the Braves win at Birmingham. Emmanuel Evans contributed 20 points and 11 rebounds for the Braves (16-9). Fahim Hassankhail scored four of his seven points on free throws in the final 1:30, and had nine assists for Birmingham.

San Fernando 79, Venice 55

The San Fernando High boys' basketball team, top-seeded in the City Section 3-A Division, won its playoff opener Friday night, but may have lost much more. Center Tyrone Purnell and guard Devin Montgomery went down with injuries in the Tigers' 79-55 rout of Venice at San Fernando. Purnell twisted his left ankle in the first quarter and left with one point. Montgomery, the Tigers' leading scorer, scored 15 points before leaving in the second quarter with a strained back muscle. Both players' availability for Wednesday's quarterfinal game against San Pedro is uncertain, Coach Mick Cady said. Forward Luis DeLaRosa filled the offensive void, scoring 24 points. Bryson Atkins added 11 points for San Fernando (24-2), which won its 11th consecutive game.

Hamilton 82, Reseda 62

Michael Brignac scored 23 points and Robert Arceneaux added 16 points but the Regents fell at Hamilton (14-10). Reseda (9-16) was outscored, 27-11, in the second quarter and trailed, 41-26, at halftime.

Sylmar 75, Franklin 59

George Wrighster had 26 points and 12 rebounds to help the Spartans win at Sylmar. T.K. Reed added 15 points, 10 rebounds and six assists, and Dallas Townsend had 14 points and 18 rebounds for Sylmar (16-9).

Poly 84, Narbonne 75

Senior guard John Gillard made eight three-point baskets en route to a career-high 26 points and the 15th-seeded Parrots upset second-seeded Narbonne at Narbonne. Ellis Richardson scored 22 points and Andres De La Hoya had
10 points and 11 assists for Poly (11-14). Donovan Rousell had 20 points for Narbonne.

San Pedro 84, Mid-City 67

The Pirates made Mid-City's first ever playoff appearance a short one, getting a career-high 41 points from senior guard Allen Kordich in their first-round triumph. Kordich scored 22 points in the first half to help San Pedro (7-18) take a 39-25 lead. He also had six rebounds, five assists and three steals. Senior guard Rashaud Armstrong added 14 points and 12 rebounds.

Bell 61, Marshall 40

So why should the playoffs be any different than the regular season? Neither of these schools ever managed to call their scores in, whether to us or to any newspapers, so the media blackout continues. And not surprisingly, Bell won.

University 64, Garfield 54

Uni is another one of those teams whose scores were only reported sporadically, and the same is true of Garfield, and while we received lots of mail during the season from some of their fans, when we would ask them to simply e-mail us the scores or the details of games, we heard nothing. So, for the next 9 months, we'll continue to hear nothing from Garfield. Uni advances so maybe, just maybe we'll be able to get something from them later. For now though, not even a box score.