h-w and southern section saturday

SoCal High School & Prep Report

Southern Section: Assorted Games--
Harvard-Westlake, Ruben Douglas, et.al.--(February 2, 1998)

We're here to report to you that the Mission League race is now a two team-affair, between Loyola and Chaminade, and we'd bet the farm on Chaminade right now. They're so deep, so talented, and are playing so well, that we don't think anyone can touch them this year, and we predict that they will continue unbeaten into the playoffs. Loyola will make the playoffs, and then beyond that, it's going to be anybody's guess whether Crespi, Notre Dame, St. Francis or maybe even Alemany will make it before Harvard-Westlake will. As we write this, we've just been informed that H-W lost to St. Francis. We don't have the details, but here's our report from Saturday's games played around the Valley-Ventura region in the Mission League, Santa Fe League and Condor League.

MISSION LEAGUE

St. Francis 85, Harvard-Westlake 77

My, how quickly things are changing at Harvard-Westlake, the defending State Division III champions. With Victor Munoz out for the season with a possible ACL injury (we say "possible" because now he has apparently received a "second opinion" that his injury might not require surgery after all--he reportedly will get a third opinion from another doctor. We don't know how he'll make up his mind, but we continue to wish him a speedy recovery), H-W has gone to Russell Lakey, it's sophomore point guard, looking to him for production and passing. Well, Russell is shooting fine, and so is big Alex Holmes, but the rest of the team is struggling to find its rhythm.

On Saturday night, Harvard-Westlake travelled to Glendale to play St. Francis. Harvard entered the game 16-4 overall and 4-2 in league play. When they left about 2 hours later, they were 16-5, and 4-3, having lost to an opponent that no one in recent memory could remember them losing to.

Richard Fields scored 28 points and St. Francis High avenged a 42-point setback to Harvard-Westlake earlier in the season with an 85-77 victory. Derek La Velle added 20 points and 12 rebounds for the Golden Knights (10-9, 4-4 in league play). Russell Lakey scored 28 points, Eric Holmes added 21 and John Karavas had 19 for Harvard-Westlake.

Harvard-Westlake is currently a team in "transition", and as we write this report of Saturday's game, we received word on the game played tonight, Monday, against Loyola at Harvard-Westlake. We won't pretend to give you the details of the game, but suffice it to say, H-W is now, as of Monday night 16-6, and 4-4 in league for the first time in perhaps 10 years, and their 40 game win streak at home is now history also, as Loyola won by three points. Apparently while Lakey scored well, he was the only one doing so, and even Karavas couldn't come to the rescue this time. According to our sources at the game, it ended on a pretty controversial call by the refs. With less than 30 seconds, H-W scored to pull within one point of Loyola (we're not sure what the score was at that point). On the ensuing inbounds play, Lakey stole the ball from Loyola, passed upcourt to Alex Holmes, who was then called for an intentional offensive foul for "bumping" with his chest (and it's a pretty big chest) with only 17 seconds on the clock. Loyola, then went to the line, made both free throws, and got possession of the ball with only 17 seconds. This time there were no last minute Lakey steals, and H-W won the game.

And apparently following Monday's game there were also some harsh words spoken by the Loyola coach to Lakey about his game. Our sources report that this incident occurred well after the game had concluded as parents and friends waited in the H-W gym for the Wolverine team to come out of the locker room; according to our sources, the Loyola coach made some not-so-pleasant remarks, perhaps believing that because Russel's brother had been the point guard for Loyola several years ago, this gave him license to speak. Russell's father and brother (who were in attendance) reportedly became upset about some of the things said, and yet another not-so-pleasant incident ensued during which the Loyola coach, in front of his own team and the H-W families and players reportedly made some impolite and injudicious (i.e., stupid) comments. Too bad, because these are both great programs and fine schools with tremendous basketball traditions. If we get more details, we'll let you know, and we will have a full report on the game tomorrow.

SANTA FE LEAGUE

Salesian 69, Bell-Jeff 60

Well, once again Ruben Douglas proved that he just can't do it alone. Even though he had 26 points, 10 rebounds and six assists (surely all on passes to Mike West), for the Guards, who are now barely above .500 with a 13-12 overall record and 5-4 in league play, Bell Jeff still lost by 9 points. Bell-Jeff was assessed three technical fouls in the fourth quarter; why we're not sure, but that's the report we got. The Guards held a 40-35 lead entering the fourth quarter, but Salesian, which is well below .500, and indeed barely above .250 at 8-15 overall, 4-5 in league, outscored them by 14 points in the final eight minutes. The Mustangs collected 20 of their 34 points in the fourth quarter at the free-throw line. Mike West had 14 points and 10 rebounds for Bell-Jeff.

Mary Star 67, St. Genevieve 56

Mark Padilla had 26 points but it wasn't enough for the Valiants in a Santa Fe League game at Mary Star of the Sea. Francis Sillona added 18 points for St. Genevieve.

CONDOR LEAGUE

Thacher 78, Cornerstone Christian 63--Peter Holmes scored 15 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter for the Toads (6-7, 4-2) in a Condor League victory at Thacher.

Yeshiva 72, Providence 51--Eli Hami scored 23 points for the Panthers (14-1, 9-0) in a Liberty League victory at Yeshiva.

Brentwood 58, Flintridge Prep 46--Chachi Winters scored 14 points for the Rebels (1-14), who lost a nonleague game at Brentwood.