grant v. noho 213

SoCal Prep & High School Report

City Section: Grant & NoHo
Split East Valley Title--(February 13, 1998)

Friday the 13th proved to be pretty unlucky for Grant. First, Adir Levy takes a sucker punch from a Canoga Park player, then Gilbert Arenas picks up three fouls in the first half and has to sit for about five minutes before the break; then Keron Wilkerson heats up, DeJon Lee heats up, and Chinnua Wright heats up. Shake well, stir, and you've got the makings of a great horror flick for Grant Coach Howie Levine, compliments of NoHo Coach Rob Bloom. Friday the 13th all right, and in Grant's house no less.

Grant didn't lose so much as North Hollywood just flat out won. Oh yeah, the score was 72-63. North Hollywood started Rahnell Johnson at the point, DeJon Lee at the other guard spot, Chinnua Wright at the swing position, Keron Wilkerson at the other forward spot, and Eric Roller, a big, wide 10th grader at center in place of Jonathon Hicks who sprained his ankle yesterday in practice and did not play. Before the game, Coach Bloom confided in me that he was worried about starting Roller in place of Hicks, but he thought that he would be capable of stepping up; what concerned him, however, was the pressure situation: A packed house, steaming hot gym, loud band, bright lights, and the league title on the line. Pretty heady stuff for a sophomore.

But Roller proved he was more than up to the task, as he not only had two blocked shots, and at least 12 key rebounds, he also had 8 points and provided the alternative to the perimeter shot during the first half when Keron Wilkerson's shots just weren't dropping. Keron finally came alive in the second half though, and stepped up both offensively and defensively, finishing with 11 big points.

"Keron told me during the half, after not playing very well in the first two quarters, that he knew this was his last regular season league game, and he wasn't going out that way," said NoHo coach Rob Bloom after the game. "He said he was just going to take over, and he and DeJon Lee did just that. They played the games of their lives."

And they did, with Lee hitting from everywhere, including 4 threes, knocking down 29 points in the game. The rest of NoHo's game was very balanced, and Rahnell Johnson had 5 points, Chinnua Wright had 8, including some key baskets off some two very impressive steals from Grant inbound plays, while Baisden had 4. Even Eric Roller's brother Greg got into the act with 5 points; McKissick also had 2 points.

NoHo employed a 2-2-1 half and full court trapping press for much of the second quarter, after not playing much defense at all during the first period. Grant initially jumped out to a 10-5 lead, but after 8 minutes, the score was tied at 18-18. Arenas opened up the second quarter with a very long three, and then on defense went to a 2-3 zone to try to stop the penetration and force the outside shot which had not been dropping for NoHo in the first quarter. Looked like the right thing to do if you were Coach Levine, but who would have guessed that NoHo would then start hitting the perimeter shots.

At the end of the half, Grant trailed by four, 31-35. The first half was amazing for the number of charges called--three in the first quarter alone, thanks to the fine refereeing of Steven Quat and his partner, and by the half, the two refs had called an amazing four charges, evenly distributed between the teams. Only big problem for Grant was that one was on Arenas, and with two other personals, one on the offensive glass, and the other on the defensive boards, he had to sit well before the break.

So others were forced to try to pick up the slack for Gilbert in his absence. Justin Buttikofer tried, and pretty much succeeded, using his body well, rebounding, passing and scoring too, but in the second half he got a little carried away, and while trying to play point almost got called in the backcourt on a 10 second call, forcing him to turn the ball over to Chinnua Wright off the pressure defense. Hans Hoehn, just this huge spaceeater and Eric Roller of NoHo managed to do their fair share of banging the boards and each other down low, and it was a good thing too, because Krishna Evans, whom Levine starts at center for Grant was not really much of a post player against a wide-bodied 10th grader like Roller.

The third quarter looked like it would be all Grant as Yildiz opened with a long 20' J to bring the score to 33-35, then Grant's Krishna Evans hit for 2, to tie the score 35-35. DeJon Lee then scored a layup off the fast break going coast to coast, and Gil came right back, pulling up at the top of the key (on what should have been a three, but only counted for two), pulled back and let it fly. Arenas has one of the quickest releases, so smooth it almost looks effortless. (Oh, and here's the rumor of the day--Arenas has been invited to one of the shoe company camps. I won't say which one, but you can figure it out. . . it's either Nike or Adidas, and he's going to one. . . we'll share it with you all later.)

There were some impressive defensive efforts by Grant in the second half, and some very costly and foolish turnovers, some ill-advised cross-court bounce passes under the basket, a toss up in the air for an alley-oop which never happened instead of just taking the easy layup for the two points. Stuff like that cost Grant this game, and gave Keron the opportunity to step it up, and to step it up BIG. With Gil in foul trouble the entire second half, he really could not play aggressive defense, and without Levy, Grant was missing the other half of its perimeter three-point scoring.

So it was not much of a surprise that with sloppy defense and offense, and with superb shooting, 5 key steals in the fourth quarter, two by Chinnua Wright which were both converted for points, that No Ho won this one. The game was really over with about 2 minutes to play as NoHo jumped out to a 56-67 lead. With 28 seconds the lead was 59-71, but Grant never quit, never gave up, playing through the final second of the game. Even when it didn't matter.

I had a chance to speak with Keron Wilkerson's mother after the game, and she told me that Keron is getting some serious attention from UNLV, Pepperdine, and a handful of other schools, and that Keron still has to achieve the minimum score on his SAT before he'll be eligible at a D-I school. "He's working on it" she said, smiling and obviously very proud of those 29 points he had tonight.

Bell-Jeff coach Eli Essa was also in the stands watching, and we had a chance to talk briefly about Ruben Douglas, Mike West and a couple of the other players, and we also spoke of Ruben's 51 point performance the other night against Mary Star. Bell-Jeff's chances in the playoffs look pretty good. They didn't tie for league, but finished second, and they'll find out Sunday (along with everyone else) about the playoff pairings. We're betting on a showdown in Division V-A between Bell-Jeff and Crossroads this year. Essa didn't say that, but that's what we think. Maybe Montclair. Who knows?

Great game, great crowd, hot, sweaty and noisy gym. Cheapest entertainment in town.